Governor Rochas Okorocha reacts to the protest by pensioners

Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has
reacted to the recent protest by pensioners in
the state.
The elderly pensioners on Wednesday, June 15,
took to the streets of the state capital to
demonstrate over non payment of their
entitlements by the government. Below is the
statement issued by Sam Onwuemeodo, Chief
Press Secretary to the Governor:
"The State Governor, Owelle Rochas
Okorocha has sincerely commended the
pensioners in the state for the peaceful
manner with which they had conducted
their protest on Thursday, June 16, 2016
over the non-payment of their pensions
for certain months.
The governor contends that the
Pensioners were right to have gone on
protest over their pensions, and had only
exercised their guaranteed right of
protest over an issue affecting them.
It was as a result of the appreciation of
the reason for the protest that made the
governor to direct the security agencies
in the state and all the government
officials to be on their toes for the period
the protest had lasted to ensure that no
pensioner involved in the exercise was
insulted or touched. And the pensioners
had had undisrupted outing, and even
chased away the Commissioner for
Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) who
was sent to talk with them on what
could be made available for them as
entertainment, while discussion with
their leaders would follow. However, the
only area the governor felt and still feel
worried with the pensioners was their
failure or inability to find out the reason
for the delay in the payment of their
pensions since such situation had not
arisen before now.
The pensioners in the state do not need
to be told that the governor loves them
greatly and would have also loved to pay
them all the arrears outrightly given the
option since he had paid them religiously
since 2011, until now. And the governor
had expected the pensioners to ask
question and find out the reason for the
delay this time.
Since 2011, and before the current
economic challenges across the nation,
the government had paid the pensioners
in the state without taking cognizance of
certain lapses in the administration of
the pension payments and the number of
genuine pensioners in the state. But the
economic situation in the country at the
moment occasioned by the
mismanagement of the country’s
resources over the years, which has also
affected negatively the financies of the
states has called for stringent measures
in the payment of salaries and pensions.
It was this development that had
compelled the government to find out
why between 2011 and now, the number
of pensioners in the state has
snowballed by 500 percent, and the
amount involved gone from hundreds of
millions of naira to billions of naira.
That was one of the reasons the
government embarked on verification.
And preliminary findings have shown that
a cartel had used the opportunity offered
to them by the change of government in
2011 to inflate unpatriotically the number
of pensioners in the state to a level that
is unbelievable. And that is what the
government has been assiduously
working to rectify. And the truth remains
that once the government succeeds in
separating the fake pensioners from the
genuine ones, the genuine ones would be
paid their pensions. And this action will
be taken in a matter of weeks.
The governor therefore regrets the delay
and at the same time appeals to the
pensioners in the state for their
understanding, bearing in mind that he
meant well for them since 2011 when he
became governor. It is equally important
to let the pensioners know that those
urging them to take one action or the
other do not love them more than
governor Okorocha. For instance, the
owner of the particular Radio station in
the state that had tried to make out
something sinister from the pensioners’
protest was reported to have got more
than N750 million from the 4 billion
dollars’ arms purchase scandal, and the
pensioners should ask those in the radio
station why they didn’t bring up the
N750 million issue for discussion.
Once more, the governor appeals to the
pensioners in the state for
understanding.