Abia NUP Chairman, Elder Chukwuemeka Irondi, during the briefing
Otti deceived us, Abia NUP cries out …Insists it did not sign away gratuities of members, debunks government’s claim of clearing 45 months pension arrears
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
The leadership of Abia State Council of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has denied claims by the state government that it (government) has cleared the 45 months arrears of pension owed the senior citizens by previous administrations.
The Abia NUP Executive Committee is aso insisting that it is untrue that executive waived off arrears of gratuities and pensions owed its members in the state as documented in the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between the government and the Union.
NUP, at a Press Briefing in Umuahia on Thursday, October 24, 2024, repudiated the said MoA, describing it as a document unilaterally produced by government agents who coerced its leaders to endorse it. “The MoA in question was secretly prepared by Government without any input from the NUP EXCO,” Abia NUP leadership declared.
Chairman of Abia NUP, Elder Chukwuemeka Irondi, and State Secretary, Elder Uma Kalu, who spoke on behalf of the NUP State Executive Committee during the Press Briefing, demanded for a review of the said MoA. “The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Abia State Council insists on a serious review of the so-called MoA on the strength of Article 7 (a) and (b) of the so-called MoA as written by agents of government,” he said.
Recall that during his electioneering campaigns, Governor Alex Otti had promised to clear arrears of pensions owed Abia retirees.
Prior to the commencement of the payment of the arrears by the state government, after series of meetings, both parties, on March 25, 2024, purportedly signed the MoA which partly stated that Abia pensioners, in their meeting of January 11, 2024,decided to waive their outstanding entitlements , including pensions and gratuities.
Painting a grim picture of the circumstance under which its leaders were deceitfully made to endorse the now contentious document, the NUP said its State Executive Committee was summoned to a meeting scheduled for 5 p.m at the Office of the then Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Mike Akpara. He said the time was later changed to 1 p.m, despite protestations by the NUP leaders that the meeting was sudden and, besides, many members of their Executive Committee members live outside Umuahia.
Further narrating their experience, the Abia NUP Chairman said: “Eventually, only four out of a nine-member NUP State Executive were available for the meeting. They arrived and were kept in the office of the State Commissioner for Finance from 1. 00 p.m to after 8. 00 p.m without any discussions.
“The Government team led by Mazi Michael Akpara kept moving up and down discussing in low tones without reference to the Union Exco present.
“Surprisingly that night, many aides of the Governor who had not attended the Committee meetings for the first time, including the State Accountant-General, Dr. Mrs Njum Onyemenam, the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, , Ikechukwu Uwanna, surfaced.
“The scenario became a little apprehensive. It is also important to note that during the long and tortuous waiting, Dr Mrs Betty Emeka Obasi, probably acting out her part of the written script, trickishly asked for and collected the NUP letter-headed paper from the unsuspecting State NUP Secretary.
“At a point, just before we began to agitate, Mazi Michael Akpara and Dr. Mrs. Betty Emeka Obasi came out from the Finance Commissioner’s inner office with a document and asked us to endorse for them. We were taken aback. Dr. Mrs Emeka Obasi said it was nothing but the message from the Executive Governor as (she) earlier informed us.
“We told them that we could neither read nor digest anything then for its was late already and we were all tired. And again, we would have come prepared, at least, with the Union’s Legal Adviser, if the meeting was said to be for the execution of an agreement.
“They insisted, adding that the Executive Governor was still sitting up, waiting for the outcome of the meeting. Without suspecting any foul play/evil intentions on the part of government, we innocently endorsed the MoA on trust, thinking we were still on the same page with our dear Governor.”
According to the NUP leader, when the union reacted to the MoA, after discovering that they have been “cheated” through its letter to the Governor of April 4, 2024, he detailed his Commissioner for Justice to reply to NUP’s letter.
“Unfortunately, the Attorney-General’s response dated 19th April, 2024, fell very much short of the expectations of the Union. The language used in his letter could simply be summarized as bullying, intimidating, false allegations and threatening.
“The Union immediately replied to the letter from the Attorney-General/Commissioner for Justice on 23rd April, 2024, stating the facts as they were. Since then, Government took no further actions, including carrying out the threat on stopping payment of pensions to Abia Pensioners.”
Elder Irondi further alleged that the document was prepared with the NUP letter headed paper that was trickishly obtained from their Secretary.
The Union said that in line with Article 7 of the disputed MoA which provides that (A): Any disputes arising from this agreement shall be resolved, first, by mutual negotiations between the parties; and (B): Disputes arising from this agreement that cannot be resolved amicably shall be referred to arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 2023…,” it has made serious efforts to reach the Governor to seek amicable resolution of the MOA to no avail.
It added that NUP even met a government functionary who allegedly told them “to forget the MoA issue, that it has been settled,” and government would not revisit it “because it was a planned deal to use the NUP as a sacrificial lamb to launch the government into a wider world.”
The Union said this informed its resolve to go public, to speak the truth about the purported agreement since it efforts for amicable resolution have hit a brick wall.
Debunking the claim that NUP leaders waived off pensions and gratuities of their members as the MoA indicated, the Union said: “We never discussed gratuities at any point, let alone talking about waiving of any entitlements of Pensioners, including gratuities. Nobody has the authority of imposing the waiving of gratuities of Abia Pensioners for any reason.”
“All pensioners of Abia State and Ndi Abia in general should note and hear clearly that the Alex Chioma Otti-led administration did not clear a kobo of the 45 months unpaid pension arrears of the previous administration as presented by the Abia State Council of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners. The present administration only cleared the arrears of 10 months (June 2023 – March 2024) which it incurred. Of course, some pensioners have not received the arrears till date. The so-called ex-gratia paid by the Governor is neither here nor there since it was not discussed with the Governor,” Irondi said, adding that “the Governor’s claim to have cleared 10 years of pension arrears has no basis in the Union’s (NUP) records.”
Continuing, the Abia NUP boss said: “If the Governor, His Excellency, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti (OFR), has decided to renege on his campaign promise of clearing all arrears of pensions he met on assumption of office, he should declare it to Abians and leave arrears to his successors as government is a continuum. It would be a great disservice and hypocrisy using the NUP EXCO as a scapegoat and the Abia Pensioners as a sacrificial lamb to attract national and International grants for selfish reasons.”
Answering a question on whether a gun was pointed to their heads to force them to sign the controversial MoA, the Secretary of the group said that there is a situation which one would face that would be worse than pointing a gun at one’s head.
