We’re hungry, dying daily, Abia pensioners protest

Octogenarians who are pensioners in Abia State yesterday brought Umuahia metropolis to a standstill when they blocked dual carriage Bende road to protest their one-year unpaid arrears of pension.

The pensioners who carried placards with anti-government inscriptions, said the union had six months ago written the state governor on the issue and was yet to receive any response.

It took the intervention of the combined team of the men of Umuahia Central Police Station, led by its Divisional Police Officer, SP. Onyeke Ezekiel Udeviotu and the men of Abia State Command to get the octogenarians to vacate the roads.

Speaking with newsmen, the state Chairman of the National Union of Pensioners, Deacon Amaugo Daniel, disclosed that their grievances were that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu was not sensitive to their plight, which they said had led to the death of over 50 of them this year.

He said, “If he wants to shoot me, let him go ahead and kill me. The pensioners are dying daily because of lack of money. As I am now, he owes me 12 months’ pension. Should it be so? We are hungry and dying on daily basis. Our demand now is that he should come and pay us.”

A call put to the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ikpeazu, Enyinnaya Apollos, was abruptly dropped when the issue was introduced to him and he did not pick subsequent calls.