A group, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has picked holes in a recent claim by the Hope Uzodinma administration in Imo State that it has unraveled ‘ghost pensioners’ in the state’s Pensioners Pay Roll.

The State Government also claimed that those leading the pensioners’ protests in the state capital are not pensioners but ‘mercenaries’.

According to RULAAC, The government specifically mentioned, as ghost pensioners, the names of the Chairman and Secretary of the ‘Pensioners Intervention Committee’ which was formed by the state pensioners to lead their struggles and to articulate their grievances after the state labour union betrayed them.

The government also said that the two leaders are from Mbaise and are being sponsored by former Governor Emeka Ihedioha, also from Mbaise, ‘to make the state ungovernable’.

Reacting to the statement, RULAAC in a statement issued by its Executive Director Okechukwu Nwanguma described the government’s position as untenable. He wrote:

“I have personally verified these claims and found that: The two leaders whom the government claimed are ‘ghost pensioners’ are not ‘ghost pensioners’. They are genuine pensioners. None of them is also from Mbaise, as alleged by the state government.

“May I challenge the government of Imo State to publish, for public scrutiny, the list of the ghost pensioners which it claimed to have unraveled?

“May I also call on the governor, Hope Uzodinma to heed the cries of pensioners and pay them their entitlements to ameliorate their suffering!!

“May I also call on the governor to put an end to the use of the SSS, police and thugs to harass, molest and intimidate pensioners and workers exercising their rights to express their grievances and make legitimate demands through peaceful protests? Peaceful protests are inseparable from democracy.”