Thugs reportedly yesterday attacked pensioners who were protesting non-payment of their pensions in front of the Imo State Government House, Owerri. The attack occurred when the pensioners were protesting the non-payment of five months’ pensions arrears under the Governor Hope Uzodinma’s administration.

The pensioners, who were marching on the streets of Owerri for the fifth time in about a month, were first attacked at the Freedom Square where they gather on a daily basis to discuss their plight. One of the aggrieved pensioners, Ebenezer Ibekwe, told journalists that they were first attacked by the thugs with water missiles when the thugs poured buckets of water on them and hauled water sachets on the senior citizens. Due to their huge number, they defied the attack and the barricades of security operatives and marched on to the Government House. Close to the Government House, thugs wearing head gears of the Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission (ENTRACO) emerged with additional number of thugs dropped by an unmarked ‘Bus Imo’.

The thugs, now numbering about 15, wielded canes and whips and immediately attacked the pensioners, trying to break up the protest. The senior citizens, who were resolute, defied the attack as the thugs pounced on them, flogging anyone within reach. While the retirees, numbering over 500 surged, a detachment of police operatives led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, A. J. Moses, arrived the scene and dispersed the thugs without arresting any of them. The senior police officer then appealed to the pensioners to work with the appropriate organ of government to resolve the pension quagmire.

The pensioners, however, told journalists that they had reached out to every relevant organ of government without result and regretted that it was the same people who urged them to be patient that turned around and called them ‘ghost pensioners’. The pensioners accused the state government of being inhuman and insensitive in their dealings with retirees. Ibekwe said that there was nothing else to hold back as they had already been subjugated and beaten to the ground by the government. He alleged that the thugs were sent by the government.

He said: “I retired as a secondary school principal in 2011, after meritoriously serving my state and here I am being beating by young men who should be my children, denigrated and pelted with water sachets for demanding what is rightfully mine.” (Saturday Telegraph)

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