In Imo State, a significant number of retirees, totaling 24,000, are yet to receive their pensions, according to Comrade Iyke Ohaneje, Chairman of the Imo State Pensioners Intervention Committee.
He claimed that the State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, paid gratuities to only 3,000 retirees.
Ohaneje highlighted that the state’s 27,000 pensioners include civil servants, local government staff, teachers, and permanent secretaries.
He emphasized the disparity between the number of pensioners and those who have received payments, pointing out that the government’s claim of having paid over 3,000 retirees is insufficient.
“If the government claimed that they have paid over 3,000 pensioners within the bracket of N2 million to God be the glory,” Ohaneje stated.
“We record that few of them have been paid. Their claim that they have paid 3,000 pensioners is neither here nor there” he told The Leadership newspaper.
Ohaneje argued for a comprehensive payment plan, criticizing the current system as selective and inadequate.
“It should not be a selective payment. By the report we are getting, it is selective payment,” he said.
He noted instances where pensioners received only a fraction of their entitled gratuities, saying, “There are a few persons who were reported to have received what looks like 10 percent of their gratuities, such as pensioners who had N2.9 million, they were paid N290,000.”