Members of Local Government Pensioners Association (LOGPAN), on Thursday, stormed the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, to effect their threat of shutting down the Secretariat, over non-payment of their gratuities.
The senior citizens had arrived at the State Secretariat as early as 8.00 am with their mats and cooking utensils and blocked the second entrance, denying both workers and visitors alike from gaining entry.
The gates were shut against the protesters by security agents manning the gates, vowing not to leave until Governor Dapo Abiodun addressed them.
The State Chairman LOGPAN, Sikiru Ayilara, alleged that the governor had not shown concern about their demands which include non-payment of gratuities, lateness and non-increment in the monthly pensions and discrimination against the members by the government among others.
He said, “We wanted to stage a peaceful protest and we introduce ourselves to them, we don’t have cutlass, we don’t have an ordinary stick in our hands, we just one to make the people know the treatment being melted to us as pensioners in this state.
“The suffering we are experiencing from this and the previous administration is too much.”
The retirees urged Governor Abiodun to review the N500m quarterly payment of gratuities to N1 billion, arguing that such policy would take the government 34 years to clear all outstanding.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Tokunbo Talabi, while addressing the retirees, appealed to them to exercise more patience with the government.
“We want you to be patient with us you will recall that when we started paying what we agreed to pay we started paying from 2011 to 2014, we didn’t pay from 2019 the year we came in and we all know what the country is saying now when it comes to money, we are promising you that with time we would do more concerning what we agreed to be paying.
“We just have to be realistic with ourselves, the money cannot be paid at once or the way you want it, but if you are patient it could be sorted out, we just have to be patient because we are just two years in the government and we have to touch some sectors of the economy also like road infrastructure so that we can get money to do things,” he added.
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