Tears of joy flowed from the senior citizens of Abia State on Thursday as they started receiving credit alert messages of varying amounts of money as they celebrate their Easter after a promise by the State Governor – Alex Otti was made.
On Thursday morning, the governor had revealed that the retirees were going to smile before the close of work.
While addressing the congregation at Christ the King Catholic Church(CKC), Aba, where he had joined the priests and the faithful to celebrate Chrism Mass and renewal of priestly vows. Otti announced,
“Some of you (pensioners) have been owed since 2014. At the end of today (Thursday) all of you will smile. Check your accounts at the end of business today.”
However, true to his words, credit alert messages started flying all over Abia and beyond depending on the location of each pensioner at the time the cheering messages arrived, indicating that the long awaited money had entered their accounts.
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The state Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners(NUP), Comrade Chukwuemeka Irondi, confirming the cheering development on Friday, said that “many people have told me they have received arrears”.
“We followed him” in the 2023 general election because of his promise to clear the pension arrears.
“The man called Governor Alex Otti is a man to rely on. He is a man who loves and cares for pensioners; he is a man who means well for Abians,” the Abia NUP Chairman enthused.
Irondi said was speaking on a radio programme in Umuahia, poured encomiums on the Abia governor for fulfilling his promise to the pensioners
He also said that he was yet to confirm if the amount of money received by retirees covered the entire arrears since 2014 or the arrears arising from half payments from June 2023.
Chief Emeka Okezie, the Coordinator of the Concerned Abia Pensioners (CAP), who had led several protests against the immediate past administration over the disdain that pensioners were treated which he said had resulted in a high death rate among the retirees, said that Otti started payment of the pension arrears since Wednesday.
He said,
“I have received my own and many others have. Some were paid N1.3m, some N1.7m, some N1.8m and some, more.”
Nevertheless, nine years of agony and gloom are finally over for the retired employees of Abia State government as Governor Alex Otti has kept his campaign promise of clearing the accumulated pension by past governments.
