By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD) has called on Abia governor, Alex Otti to adopt enforceable payment agreement, EPA, framework in renogotiating and paying old citizen?s their pensions based on practicability.

The Foundation said the statement became necessary after obtained and listened to snippets from interviews granted by state officials and leaders of Abia State pensioners concerning the pension war, read newspaper publications on the same issue.

According to the group, Governor Otti, had it in mind to clear the pension backlog standing to the credit of the retirees, this being a promise he made on his campaign trail and later reemphasised during his inaugural address when he promised to clear all pension and salary arrears ?on or before December 2023.

This is contained in a joint statement issued on Saturday by comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, Executive Director and Barrister Femisi Akande, Head, corporate Accountability and Human Rights Enforcement respectively.

The statement reads: ?That the governor later told pensioners and Abians that he never knew how burdensome the arrears were, and promised to look into the matter.

?Upon realising that the said arrears would deplete state resources if paid once or in a short time frame, Gov. Otti sought other means to address the matter of pension arrears for which reason a memorandum of agreement, MoA was ?signed? by the leaders of the Nigeria Union Pensioners, Abia State, as reported by Vanguard newspaper of February 2, 2025.

?An alleged sum of ten billion naira (?10,000,000,000.00) was given to the pensioners to forfeit arrears owed them. But the retirees came out to claim that they ?did not sign any agreement? only to say again that they signed the said agreement under the cover of darkness.

?Since then, the Governor has publicly labelled pensioners as ?dishonest? and ?stupid? both during a church service and media chat, in a manner that is quite disdainful.

?That pensions are right of retirees which MUST be paid to them for giving of themselves in active years of service; to this end the governor deserves credit for trying to regularise pension payment, even though it was wrong to seek a forfeiture deal from old citizens as alleged.

?That the statement credited to Mr. Okey Kanu, Honourable Commissioner for Information, saying that the governor paid an 'ex gratia payment? to the pensioners was wrong.

?Does the Honourable Commissioner mean to tell the listening world that the ex gratia was for the NUP leaders to accept a forfeiture in place of pension?

?The Foundation wishes to state that pension is what is payable to pensioners, a component of the wage bill in the recurrent expenditure of yearly appropriation, not an ex gratia payment. Was such ex gratia payment advanced from the state coffers or the governor?s personal pocket?

?The governor MUST go back to the negotiation table and engage the retirees again in the interest of peace. Asking them to go to court or return whatever money that was given to them can never be a pathway to peace or a win-win outcome.

?As a leader, especially one so loved by the people, the governor should be mindful of his choice of words, especially in the public, and learn to be constructive.

The demography of his supporters during the 2023 elections included old Abians, who protested nonpayment of gratuity for twenty years in 2022 before he was elected.

e) Governor Alex Otti, OFR, must not judge everything by focusing on partisan politics. The statement credited to him that the NUP leaders ?hired a PDP member as a lawyer? is unideal. Even if the lawyer is a PDP member, he is on retainer and is rendering legal services, which he could also do for any other party or group.

The Foundation understands the barrage of criticism and bad press the governor is getting from certain political circles, especially following his latest media gaffe, but his emotions must not get the better of him.

?Abia currently runs two pension systems. The defined benefits scheme, DBS, and the contributory pension scheme, CPS.

?Since Abia pension law was only reenacted in 2024, it is important to know which pensioner falls within which scheme so as to use such computations to make the necessary adjustments and disaggregations that can create a harmonised and simplified pension payment for the state.

?The Foundation calls on the governor, Dr. Alex Otti, to adopt enforceable payment agreement, EPA framework in renogotiating and paying old citizens their pensions based on practicability.

?By this, the Foundation means that the government must engage the retirees with openness and transparency, informing them about the need to restructure their pensions to enable the state fix other projects while paying them in installments.

?This is capable of clearing all the backlog and arrears standing to their credit in a foreseeable date.

?Abia may not be able to pay billions of pension piled by past governments in one year or so as there are other critical areas to take care of. This must be the basis of the negotiation.

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