By Justice Nwafor
Dissatisfied by the alleged neglect they have suffered in the hands of the Rochas Okorocha led state government, Imo State pensioners have unraveled reasons why the state governor must be probe by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The pensioners under the aegis of Association of Retired Permanent Secretaries, in an open letter addressed to president Buhari, accused Governor Okorocha of neglecting the pensioners to die, as well as mismanaging the Paris club refund and bailout funds meant for them.
The pensioners in the well detailed letter decried that despite the Buhari led government’s efforts at ameliorating their suffering, governor Okorocha is bent on making life more miserable for them.
The pensioners accused the governor of disregarding the July 2017 judgment of National Industrial Court, Owerri Division, which “declared that it is illegal for Imo State government to alter or withhold the pension rights of pensioners”.
In the letter, they alleged that the State government owed pensioners up to seven (7) years arrears.
“Which some retired public servants are owed over 7 years pension arrears, there is no record of the payment of gratuities since Governor Rochas Okorocha assumed office as the governor of Imo State”.
“It is embarrassing that despite the effort of the President to mitigate the sufferings of retired workers by providing Paris club refund and bailout funds, the Rochas Okorocha government has persistently refused to apply these funds to the purposes they were meant for”.
Leaving the governor unprobed, would amount to mockery of the rooted anti graft war of the Buhari administration. It would also encourage corruption, not just in the state, but across the country, the pensioners reminded President Buhari.
Apart from alleged misappropriation of funds, the senior citizens alleged that Okorocha abuses rule of law and neglects due process in the conduct of the business of government, as well as usurps the statutory duties of public servants and other government agencies by hired political cronies.
“The trend of growing destitution of public officers deliberately created by the present government through arbitrary reduction and irregular payment of salaries is worrisome. Financial embarrassment is a serious offence in the public service, yet this government is by its action creating it among workers and pensioners” the letter read.
Aside describing the current administration as lawless, planless, wasteful, insensitive and reckless, the senior citizens pleaded with the President to “kindly take a fatherly view of the suffering of not only the pensioners but the entire citizens of Imo State” in order to save them from “starvation and untimely death”.
