OMG! Gov. Rochas Okorocha ‘Asks’ Imo Pensioners To Forfeit Majority Of Their Owed Pension And Sign That They’ve Collected All!

Rochas Okorocha, governor of the state, wants pensioners in the state to sign off years of entitlements in order to get a meagre sum that is way below half of what is due to them.

A document from the state government to the pensioners, seen by TheCable, seeks to compel the retirees to accept the plan of the state to pay them only 40 percent of pension arrears and cancel the remaining 60 percent. Not only that, 40 percent payment is only applicable to 13 months of pension; all arrears beyond 13 months are to be written off.

In context, this means a pensioner, who is owed 70 months pension of N50,000 per month, which totals N3.5 million, will only get N260,000 and forfeit N3.24 million. Pensioners also say the state is coercing them into signing the deal else they will not get a dime at all.

An official of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in the state also confirmed the deal, adding that some retirees of the Alvan Ikoku University of Education, who are being owed 72 months, were also asked to sign off 59 months.

“By my own findings, many people still went for it because precedent tells them that they might as well forfeit everything if they rejected it,” he said. “There was a time government was owing the judicial staff and those people went for strike for almost eight months. At the end, nothing was done; they even had to come back and beg, that whatever was agreed before should be paid them.

“Many people were psychologically beaten to take it. But I know those who have not taken it are more in the state than those who have.”

Some of the pensioners in the state, who had been given the documents needed to sign off their benefits but rejected it, spoke with TheCable but asked for their identities to be protected. Source; TheCable,ng.com