Governor Abiodun is an ingrate for his non-challance to pensioners welfare, says union

The Pensioners in Ogun State on Thursday declared that Governor Dapo Abiodun is an ingrate for his failure to see to their welfare, and delibrate  refusal to engage them in a dialogue to look into their plights.

Penpushing reports that, the Secretary of the union, Dr Bola Lawal made the declaration while featuring on a Yoruba programme,’Oju abe’, on Splash F,M in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital, recalling that when the Governor’s mother who is one of them had problems, the union stood by her.

‘Before becoming Governor,when his mother who is one of us had problem, the union stood by her, and now that, Dapo Abiodun become Governor, he has refused to address our plights. We have made several attempts to dialogue with him, but he is not forthcoming’

The scribe further accused the governor  of non-challance,adding that he (Abiodun) forgets that, ‘who ever inherits properties, must also be ready to pay debt’, stressing that since 2010 when there was order for 4% incerement in pension, the situation had remain standstill.

Penpushing further reports, that Lawal lamented that, it is ridiculous that at this level and stage of development, there  are  pensioners who still  gets N5,000 as monthly payment,noting that, ‘N5,000 is what is used as daily feeding of dogs in homes of many Nigerian leaders’

‘The Ogun State Government has not been fair to us. We still have some of our members still receiving as low as N5,000 as monthly pension. The present government has not been useful to us in regards our welfare’ Lawal emphasied

The Secretary said they would have go on protest, if not because of the lockdown against coronavirus, assuring that all things being equal, the protest will still take place after the lift on the stay home order, to press further on their rights.

Penpushing also reports that, Lawal in the one hour live interview spoke on the lockdown situation, declaring that, it was not too much if  government can pay N10,000 to each pensioner through their various Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) as the lockdown lasted

The scribe added further that, out of the number of trucks of food allocated for Ogun State as pallatives, it will be a welcome development for government to allocate five of the trucks to pensioners to enable them keep body and soul together as the lockdown lasted.

Penpushing reports that, the union in the same vein expressed dissapointment on the ledership of the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), alleging that the congress has not been playing the role of  mother body towards pensioners welfare in the recent time.

The pensioners pointed out that, despite the fact that, the monthly deductions from their peanut pensions into the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) account on monthly basis, the mother body had never deem it fit to fight for their(pensioners) needs, when necessary to do so.

‘The Nigeria Labour Congress which is our mother body, had never deem it fit to even embark on protest on our behalf, in view of our challenges. We pay our 10% monthly pension from our peanuts, but are no where to be found to fight our course, even when they now we cannot go on strike’,Lawal stated