Dressed in all-black, the retirees bemoaned that the state government had abandoned them to die in hundreds, after serving the state with their lives.
In a release made available to newsmen during the protest, the retirees led by Deacon Amaugo Daniel (chairman) and Chief Okezie Emeka (secretary) for the Concerned Abia Pensioners, they also alleged that the state was owing retirees 19 months accumulated gratuities.
They also listed non-harmonization of pensions between 1998 to 2000 as one of their grievance, while revealing that the least paid pensioner in Abia State received a paltry N500 (five hundred naira), yet the state allegedly refused to pay them.
Their released read “ we have been dehumanized and subjected to unimaginable deaths, chronic sicknesses and promise by the state government.”
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