Abia State Council of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has sent an SOS to the State House of Assembly, appealing to the lawmakers to urgently investigate and unravel why its members have not been paid since this year.

Rising from a crucial meeting last Thursday, NUP also issued a 21-day ultimatum to the State Government to respond to issues raised in its memo submitted in March this year or be prepared to do battle with its members, while lambasting the Commissioner for Finance, Mr Obinna Oriaku, for deceiving the leadership of the union.

The union, in a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting held at the Local Goverment Service Commission hall and jointly endorsed by the NUP State Chairman, Comrade Chukwuma Udensi, and Secretary, Elder O. C. Arungwa, said urgent intervention by the state legislature would save its members from further hardship.

The pensioners decried the untold hardship its members were being exposed to in the face of the biting economic woes as they were being owed arrears of pensions.

The union attacked the Commissioner for Finance for lying to its leadership. According to the senior citizens, the Commissioner informed NUP leadership that funds have been released to banks for January 2016 pensions when, in actual fact, payment could not be effected after one month of that information.

They, therefore, issued a stern warning to government functionaries to desist from being dishonest in matters affecting pensioners.

"The Council critically and extensively reviewed the situation of pensions payment in Abia State and expressed dissatisfaction with government's performance in this very important sector which affects a cross-section of the sociey," part of the communique read.

The retirees lamented that no pensions have been paid in the state since this year, except for some First Bank clients who received their pensions for the month of January 2016 only.

The claimed that “apart from the arrears of pensions from January to May 2016, pension arrears of 2014 and 2015 which range between four and ten months, as the case may be for different subtreasuries in the state, are still outstanding.”

The union equally alleged that “the NUP was shabbily treated and shortchanged in the disbursement of the Bail Out Funds,” noting that excluding NUP from the Bail Out fund Disbursement Committee denied the union the opportunity of presenting its case properly, warning that “such neglect should not be repeated in future.”

The union lamented the plight of retirees of Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba, who have not been paid for the past 20 months and called on the state government “to do something urgently to reduce their sufferings.”

NUP called on government to reconsider the case of non-indigenes, who worked and retired in Abia State, and had been receiving their pensions in the state, but were sent back to their States of origin, lamenting that “these pensioners were now left to suffer with no hope of pensions for the rest of their lives.”

The union recalled that in a communiqué at the end of its meeting on March 15, 2016, the NUP “demanded that government should commence rectifying the serious issues enumerated in that communiqué within 60 days” and expressed dismay that “there has been no response from government.”

“The Council-in-session demands that government responds positively within 21 days from the date of this communiqué. Should there be no positive response from the government within this time, the council should not be held responsible for any unpalatable consequences,” the communique warned.

•Photo shows Governor Ikpeazu.

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