Non-payment of gratuities, pensions causing hardship – Taraba retirees cry

Retirees in Taraba State under the aegis of Taraba Concern Retirees on Monday stormed the state House of Assembly over Governor Darius Ishaku’s alleged negligence of their plight.

Led by its chairman, Silas Jefta; and Pastor Yohanna Ajiya, the pensioners, who were demanding their unpaid pension and gratuities lamented Ishaku’s administration have turned deaf ears to their plights.

The aggrieved pensioners said they have been without payment of pension for the past eight years since Ishaku came on board.

According to them, “many local government staff retired for over eight to ten years without being paid their pensions.”

They said the “nonpayment of gratuities and pensions of local governments staff has caused very high hardship to us, our children were sent out of school, some dead, sick without money for treatment.”

Begging the speaker to table the matter to the House for discussion, they said all their efforts to make the governor attend to their plights, have proved abortive.

“We tried all we could to persuade the governor to pay, but he paid deaf ears to our plea.

“Since your people are representing us, we feel to table the matter to you for solutions.”

DAILY POST reports that today’s protest is the third of its kind in the space of three months.

While urging them to exercise more constraint, the speaker,Joseph Albasu Kunin, vowed to work round the clock to draw Ishaku’s attention to their plights.