Abia pensioners beg Otti to revisit MoA on retirement benefits

A group of Abia pensioners has appealed to Gov. Alex Otti to revisit and rescind the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed with their leaders and pay them their remaining retirement benefits. The group, operating under the Abia Pensioners’ Forum, a pressure group within the state chapter of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), made the appeal on Wednesday in Umuahia.

The Coordinator of the group, Mr Okey Kanu, made the appeal while briefing newsmen on the governor’s claim that his government had defrayed the arrears of pensions left behind by Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration. Kanu implored the governor to pay the balance of their pension arrears and gratuity.

He said that before the MOA, many of their members were cumulatively owed up to 60 months, while the last payment of gratuity was in 2002. He commended Otti for the regular payment of their monthly pension since April and his developmental strides in the state.

Recall Governor Otti had in April said the state had paid all the pension arrears owed to at least 12,500 pensioners, dating back to 2014. The Governor disclosed that over N9 billion was spent from the N10 billion set aside by the government to offset the  accumulated pension arrears.

Meanwhile, Kanu said that the governor was free to liquidate the balance of the retirement benefits by instalments, if the government could not do so in one swoop. He said that the state government and NUP officials had signed an MOA, in which their arrears of pension and  gratuity were forfeited to the government.

He said that the minutes of the enlarged NUP meeting of January 11, referred to by the government in the MOA, showed that the issue of gratuity was not mentioned. Kanu, a legal practitioner, insisted that what was deliberated on was the issue of pension arrears.

He said: “In effect, signing the MOA containing the forfeiture of our gratuity in addition was ultra vires to NUP officers, hence not binding on our members. To date, the MOA has remained a secret document to our members.

“We gathered that the state NUP officials had written two letters to the State Government, requesting a meeting to discuss gray areas of the MOA. One of such gray areas, according to the NUP officials, is that the issue of gratuity was never part of their negotiation and agreement with the government.”

Kanu said that the arrears of pension and gratuity were  not negotiable “because they are personal, statutory and their legitimate entitlements in the service”. He contended that gratuity was savings from their salary, while they were in service and was supposed to be paid to them immediately on retirement.

According to him, it is unfathomable how the State Government can negotiate with vulnerable pensioners, who are deprived and famished over the years.