Abia Retirees Want Otti to Reconsider Forfeited Pension Arrears, Gratuities Signed off in MoA By NUP Leadership

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia


Five months after Abia State government declared that it had cleared all inherited pension arrears, retirees have repudiated the memorandum of agreement(MoA) under which they were made to forfeit large chunks of their pension arrears.

The MoA signed between government and the leadership of the State Council of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) also led to the forfeiture of the unpaid gratuities of the retirees.

But at a press conference yesterday in Umuahia, the Abia Pensioners’ Forum(APF), which describes itself as a pressure group within Abia NUP, said that time has come for them “to present our side of the story”.

The Forum called on the state Governor,  Alex Otti, to reconsider the MoA, saying that retirees are unhappy as the NUP leadership were apparently beguiled to sign off the pension arrears and gratuities.

Records showed that 6,242 state pensioners and 5,237 local government pensioners were paid N9,023 billion arrears of pension, representing between 30 and 60 per cent of the total arrears owed each retiree. Those with arrears below N1 million got 60 percent payment; N1 – N2m, 35 per cent; N2m – N3m, 30 per cent; N3m-5m, 30 per cent while retirees whose pension arrears were above N5 million were paid 30 per cent of the total amount.

The Coordinator of the Forum, Mr. Okey Kanu, who spoke on behalf of the group, stated that “the purported clearance of arrears of pension and gratuity” has left much to be desired.

He recalled that Otti had, during his election campaign, promised to clear in full all pension arrears, thereby reviving the hope and expectations of the Abia pensioners, who were “deprived and famished for many years by the previous administration.”

Kanu regretted that pensioners’ expectations came to an anti-climax in March 2024, “when we started receiving (bank payment) alerts for their purported arrears of pension”.

“It became a case of total disappointment for most pensioners, especially those whose arrears were in upwards of 40 months,” he said, noting that the amount paid to each pensioner was at variance with the actual figures.

“It was totally unfathomable how the state government arrived at the figures it paid to each pensioner as arrears. It was a situation whereby the more one expected, the lesser he got.”

Kanu, who is a legal practitioner faulted the Memorandum of Agreement(MoA) signed between the state government and the leadership of  Abia NUP, which required government “to pay only a part of the arrears, while the balance will be forfeited by pensioners.”

He described the MoA as “weighty and devastating, illegal, exploitative and unconscionable”, given that “pension and gratuity are statutory and personal rights of each pensioner, hence nobody has the right or competence to negotiate them away.”

However, he noted that “the last straw that broke the camel’s back was when we learnt that our gratuity was also forfeited to the state government in this MoA”, therefore, instead of rejoicing, we were thrown into mourning.”

The Forum Coordinator pointed out that when the Otti administration came up with the idea that pensioners would forfeit percentages of arrears graded according to the amount each pensioner was owed, it was accepted with a condition.

He said that the pensioners had at an enlarged Council meeting adopted a proposal on payment schedule which required that pensioners whose arrears stood at N1 million and below should receive 100 percent payment.

According to the grading, those on N1 – N2m would get 90 percent; N2m – N3, (80 per cent); N3m – N5m (70 per cent), while those with accrued pension arrears of N5m and above would be paid 60 percent, forfeiting 40 per cent as “sacrifice”.

Kanu stated that when government started paying the arrears, “there was no template or parameters published” as used in the computation of the arrears,  adding that, “pensioners were paid paid what suited those who computed the figures.”

He appealed to Governor Otti to revisit the payment of the arrears in order to resolve the outstanding issues, even though government had maintained that pensioners have received “full and final” payments of arrears.

The coordinator said that the Forum had written a passionate letter to the governor since May 16, 2024, begging him to reconsider the forfeiture of the big chunk of pension arrears and the entire unpaid gratuities of retirees.

He stated that they had also formally written to prominent individuals and offices within and outside Abia State imploring them to intervene on their behalf and plead with Governor Otti to revisit and rescind the vexatious MoA.

The Forum suggested that instead of making pensioners to forfeit their pension arrears, the government should have used the N10 billion it said was spent on the arrears as part payment and let the remaining N20 billion remain as debt.

“By purporting to have cancelled these debts, the present administration is shooting herself in her foot as it will wittingly carry the cross and blame of the past administration that accumulated them(pension and gratuity arrears),” the Forum coordinator said.