The immediate past governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has accused his successor, Emeka Ihedioha, of dashing the hopes of pensioners in the state.
This is coming few hours after the governor had in his state-wide broadcast said his administration inherited six years’ pension arrears from Okorocha.
Ihedioha also announced that his administration had started the payment of pension arrears after the biometric capturing of the pensioners had been concluded.
A statement by Okorocha’s media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, accused Ihedioha of playing politics with issues of pensions in the state.
He said, “After three months of the much orchestrated biometric verification of pensioners in the state, and after all the promises to pay pension arrears, the governor of the state, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, made an early morning broadcast on Thursday, October 17, 2019, specifically on the issue of pensions, and only ended up dashing the hopes of the pensioners in the state and also gave a wrong analysis of what the pension situation has been in the state.”
The senator alleged that Ihedioha was “liberal with blackmail” and “tight-fisted” with the truth of the pension situation.
He added, “In the broadcast, the governor announced that the payment of pension for the months of August and September would begin on Thursday, October 17, 2019 against the earlier repeated promise by his government that the pensioners would be paid in arrears.
“The governor in his broadcast said that after the biometric verification, the total number of pensioners in the state came to 24,431, while the pension bill for each month was reduced from N1.499bn to N1.218bn.
“The figure arrived at, after the verification done by Okorocha’s government, was 25,124 pensioners, which included the past governors, former deputy governors, retired judges, retired permanent secretaries and so on, with the monthly Pension bill of N1.205bn.
“The question now is, if the governor had said in his broadcast that the pensioners are now 24,431, with the monthly pension bill of N1.218bn, and the comprehensive verification done by Okorocha gave the number of pensioners as 25,124, with the monthly pension bill of N1.205bn, who is now defrauding the state? Why should the pension bill for 24,431 pensioners be higher than the pension bill for 25,124 pensioners with N13m? They never did any verification.”
Okorocha said with the governors’ claim, there was no new verification as the figures he gave were the same figures the former governor worked on “and reduced the whole thing.”
He added, “This government, to say the least, should not be taking Imo people for granted. And the governor should have also mentioned specifically when Okorocha stopped paying pensions, instead of making bogus claims.”
PUNCH
