Retired Civil Servants Lament Over Verification Exercise

By Okey Alozie
It was tension galore yesterday at the International Conference Centre, venue of the verification exercise for pensioners in the state civil service who were not captured in the last exercise.
Trumpeta reporter who monitored the exercise observed that the pensioners who are mainly elders (senior citizens of the state) trooped out in their numbers from the various local governments in the state.
The sympathetic and painful aspect of the exercise is that some of them are bed ridden while others who are suffering from one ailment or the other were brought to the centre, venue of the exercise by their family members via hired vehicles in some cases.
Some of the pensioners who could not withstand the mammoth crowd and pressure fainted in their attempt to be captured.
One of the pensioners (names withheld) who spoke to Trumpeta expressed dissatisfaction over the exercise. He described it as an added punishment to them by the state government, adding that the so-called verification exercise could have as well be done at the point of payments at the sub-treasuries or the called CGC Offices.
He queried the idea of bringing all retired civil servants in the state in a small venue like the International Conference Centre whereas it could have been done at more spacious and conducive arena.
Insisting that the exercise is uncalled for, he maintained that since the idea is not to pay automatically that it would have been ideal to go through the various Community Government Councils down to the local government and state. He pointed out that such arrangement, would have lessened the burden and pressure of coming to the state capital from the various localities.
But in her own reaction, the chairman of the Civil Service commission and pensions board Mrs Chinyere Uwandu, explained that government had already concluded the exercise at the local governments before reports that some people were not actually captured came to government.
She said that apart from using the exercise to flush out ghost pensioners in the state, the exercise is a mop up action towards their payment.
One ugly incident which drew the attention and sympathy of the crowd was an old pensioner who was so pressed in the hall that the only option he had was to defecate right there as there was no body to assist him with toilet facilities. The exercise however continues today.