Protesting pensioner, under the umbrella of the Association Contributory Retirees (ACR) in Delta State on Tuesday slammed Governor Ifeanyi Okowa with curses, after tagging him a corrupt and fraudulent governor, following what they called “his alleged corrupt” involvement in the operations and management of the funds from the state Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
The leader of the pensioners and vice chairman of the association, Mr. Anthony Osanekwu also accused the Pension Commission (PENCOM) noted that the state governor has continued to close his eyes and ears to their suffering and plights in regard to the issues on ground, adding that, “The state governor is not bothered about our suffering and plights. The contributions of the workers and purported contributions from government were taken as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), making the whole things to end up in private pockets.”
Mr. Osanekwu disclosed that, the first batch of pensioners under the scheme retired in 2010, and governor Okowa, used the 2008 salary structure to calculate pensioners terminal benefits, instead of the 2010/2011 structures, saying that in spite of the wrong calculation, the governor went ahead to pay retirees 25% of their entitlements, rather than 50%.
The pensioners armed with various placards with unprintable inscriptions, such as “Okowa, stop diverting funds meant for Contributory Pension Scheme”, “Smart agenda not for retirees”, “Okowa, can you starve for four years?”, “Okowa pay our retirement benefits”, “Okowa, stop diverting funds for Contributory Pension Scheme”, “Okowa pay our retirement benefits,” “Okowa we are tired of your insensitive.” and “Okowa swindled us of N942.5 million which he borrowed to pay regular workers but refused thereafter to pay back.”
While appealing to the Federal Government, the initiator of the CPS to beam its searchlights on the full operations of the scheme in Delta State which keyed into the CPS since 2008, the pensioners further accused Okowa of collaborating with the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and the bureau for pensions to defraud them of their entitlements.
