FOR the second time in a month, retirees under the aegis of 2011/2012 Pensioners Forum in Osun State, on Wednesday morning, embarked on a peaceful protest to denounce what they termed “wicked and inhuman attitude” of Governor Rauf Aregbesola over deliberate refusal to pay their one year pension arrears.
As early as 8.00am, the pensioners numbering over 1,000 converged on the frontage of the Osun State Secretariat complex, taking over the roundabout in front of the main gate of the secretariat, thus preventing civil servants and other top government functionaries from entering their offices.
Chanting anti government songs and displaying placards, with various inscriptions, they vowed to make Osun ungovernable should Aregbesola failed to pay their outstanding pension allowance from second tranche of Paris loan refund, which was released to the state government on Monday.
Speaking with journalists during the protest, which halted vehicular movement from the Owode end of Gbongan-Ibadan expressway, the chairman of 2011/2012 forum of pensioners in Osun State, Comrade Omoniyi Ilesanmi, said “we are the people who worked diligently after the creation of Osun State. Aregbesola should use the N6.3billion Paris loan refund he just got to pay us our pension allowance; otherwise he would find this state ungovernable.”
Quoting from Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, Section 210, which he claimed states that “anybody in the public service, either local, state or federal, is entitled to his or her benefit in form of pension and gratuity after retirement,” he contended that “Aregbesola had failed in all ramifications.
Ilesanmi continued: “He has been paying us half pension allowance monthly since July 2015, which is contrary to the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended. If you go to the market, prices all commodities have gone up. The full pension allowance is not even enough not to talk of half pension since July, 2015. Right now, he owes us unpaid one year pension allowance.”
“We need to continue this agitation. Over 2,000 of our members have died. Just day before yesterday, we lost another pensioner in Ede and about 800 retirees are bedridden, while some are married to their wheelchairs. This is sheer wickedness. Where was Aregbesola when this state was created? We laboured to ensure its survival and development only to be treated like this,” he lamented.
However, reacting to the protest, the director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy to Aregbesola, Mr Semiu Okanlawon, said “it is interesting to note that about a month ago, this same set of pensioners accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of collecting and diverting the second tranche of Paris loan refund, which they claimed had been released to Osun State by the Federal Government.”
“As they have come out today, the elderly citizens should apologise not only to Aregbesola, but also to the good people of Osun State for misinforming, confusing and creating tension in the state through their false claim that the governor had received the second tranche of Paris loan refund about a month ago.
“Like I have said, Osun State government, with its commitment to transparency under the leadership of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, made the announcement yesterday (Tuesday) to confirm the receipt of N6.314billion as the second tranche of Paris loan refund from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“The money was paid into the account of the state government on Monday and we duly made the announcement yesterday, informing the public that Osun has got the second tranche of Paris loan refund.
“In line with our government’s promise to utilise the resources of this state in the best interest of our people, we hereby restate our commitment to this promise as we begin shortly transparent deployment on our commitments to the concerned stakeholders,” he affirmed.
and then