According to a Punch Metro report,
pensioners in Osun State under the aegis of
Forum of 2011/2012 Pensioners on
Wednesday staged a fresh protest to
demand payment of the arrears of their
pensions and gratuities.
This fresh protest came just a day after
Governor Rauf Aregbesola confirmed that he
had received N6.314bn as the second
tranche of the Paris Club loan refund.
The Chairman of the forum, Mr Omoniyi
Ilesanmi, who led the protest said the
governor should use the money to pay the
entitlements of pensioners.
He said the pensioners were being owed
one-year full pension arrears and gratuities
from 2008 to 2012.
The pensioners stormed the State Civil
Service Secretariat at Abere and blocked part
of the road but they allowed workers and
others to go in and out of the place.
Armed with placards with various
inscriptions the retired workers sang anti-
government songs and rained abuses on
the governor.
Armed policemen and other security agents
deployed to monitor the protest were civil in
their approach as they allowed the
protesters to show their grievances without
resorting to violence
The pensioners said no fewer than 2000 of
their colleagues had died due to lack of
money to buy food and to treat themselves.
Ilesanmi vowed that the pensioners would
make the state ungovernable for the
governor except he paid their entitlements.
Ilesanmi said, ” The governor should use the
N6.314bn he just collected to pay us. He
should look for money from anywhere to
pay us all our entitlements.”
