Oyo pry school teachers pensioners hijacked by politicians, says government
The Oyo State government has said that the protest by a splinter group of pensioners in the state under the aegis of retired primary school teachers, whom it said constitute a tiny fraction of the larger pensioners in the state, was sponsored by political opponents of the All Progressives Congress (APC), stating that it had it on good authority that the pensioners’ rank had been infiltrated by the Accord Party and Labour Party respectively.
In a statement by the governor’s Special Adviser on Media, Dr Festus Adedayo, the government said that the protesters were like the proverbial fly dancing on the top of a river, stating that the fly’s drummers were hiding by the river bank.
“This is a season of politics and so we are not surprised. When a group of pensioners say they are not bothered that their pension and gratuity, totaling N6.5billion, was stolen by government officials and the government of the day then looked the other way while the theft held sway, the details of which are in the public domain and the alleged culprits of this monumental heist are being tried at the moment by the EFCC, then there is more to it than meets the eyes,” said the release.
The government said it had entered into an agreement with the parent bodies of the pensioners namely: Nigeria Union of Pensioners and the National Association of Retired Local Government Primary School Teachers, on the modalities for the settlement of the pension arrears and gratuity in installments, consequent upon the theft, but the pensioners were coerced to reject the offer by their political sponsors.
“If you read the so-called communiqué of the pensioners, you will realize that they are a wing of the Accord and Labour Parties respectively. They stated that they rejected the sum of N100million offered them by the Ajimobi government. No line of the communique condemned Adebayo Alao-Akala, under whose watch the N6.5 billion was stolen nor Ladoja who has a governmental history of hatred for civil servants and pensioners. It was Ajimobi, who personally held several meetings with them to tell them about the state government’s financial dilemma, especially aftermath the theft of N6. 5 billion of pensioners’ money by some officials during the regime of Adebayo-Akala, and who articulated how he will pay the arrears, in the face of dwindling allocation from Abuja, that they had beef with,” the release said.
The statement said that before politicians infiltrated the pensioners rank, government had indeed started to pay the arrears to the retired primary school teachers.
It said that the Ajimobi administration puts the welfare of retirees on the front burner in the scheme of government’s fiscal policy, which informed the unprecedented implementation of the 142 per cent pension rise by the administration in 2011.
“Before this administration came on board, past governments had pointedly told the pensioners that no government would implement the arrears. The recent decoration of the governor as the most pensioner-friendly governor in the history of the state is not a fluke, but a gesture borne out of the appreciation of the governor’s kindred spirit as far as the matter of pensioners are concerned,” the release said.
Government said it implored this splinter group of pensioners to exercise patience and align with their parent bodies on the pending agreement.
“They should also appreciate the financial burden foisted on the country in general by the dwindling revenue allocation form the Federation Account, which has brought about the unfortunate situation. Our latest allocation from Abuja was N2.6b and our wage bill is about N5billion, including pensioners’ wage. Reasonable workers of the state who are not being teleguided by politicians appreciate government’s financial dilemma,” said the statement.