The Chairman of Imo State Council
of Traditional Rulers, Eze Samuel Agunwa Ohiri, has berated former Governor of
the state, Rochas Okorocha, over his inability to pay pensioners during his
tenure.
Ohiri described as shameful and
disappointing the inability of Okorocha to pay pensioners in spite of the huge
resources at his disposal.
The traditional ruler stated this
while addressing journalists in his palace in Owerri, the state capital over
the weekend.
He lamented that Okorocha merely
played politics with the wellbeing of the pensioners throughout his
administration.
According to Ohiri, Okorocha-led
administration conducted “unending verification exercises” that never yielded
any result.
He said: “Perhaps, Okorocha
government may have been using the unending verification exercises to undermine
the payment of pensioners in the state.
“Before this present
administration, there were series of unending verification exercises of
pensioners in the state and for me, I felt like the government was kind of
playing games with our senior citizens and that wasn’t right.
“At every opportunity, I made it
known to the governor and the government that they needed to take care of our
senior citizens, but nothing came out of it.”
He, however, commended Governor
Emeka Ihedioha for commencing the payment of pensioners.
He said: “I want to thank God
Almighty that finally something is being done through Governor Emeka Ihedioha.
I have to say that in honesty and sincerity, I am happy that at this point that
our pensioners are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.
“I also commend the process,
because it is not just paying them, it requires some planning. First of all, we
need to understand and to know how many pensioners we have in the state and
truly and accurately how much is due to each of them. And such planning and
well thought out process was what I felt was lacking in the previous
administration in the state.
“Also, before now, some of the
problems that we had or some of the complaints I received as the chairman of
council of traditional rulers from these pensioners include that every month
the government can decide to pay them arbitrary figures.
“Somebody that was supposed to
get N70, 000 or N60, 000 was paid N13, 000 or N15, 000. And nobody knew how
government arrived at those figures. And they couldn’t go to anybody to get
answers to those questions.
“But now I thank God that the
government has begun payment to them 100 per cent. So, I want to say that I
have good faith in the exercise that has just been concluded and I believe it
was sincere, honest and reliable.”
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