Abia State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has challenged Governor Alex Otti to come out clean on the issue of pension arrears in the state.
The party accused Otti of making unproductive efforts, seeking cheap popularity by “peddling falsehood” to confuse and deceive unsuspecting people of Abia State about the pension situation in the state.
The Otti’s administration has been in the news for clearing 10 years of pension arrears, but a contrary view from the pensioners in the state revealed that such may not be the case.
Abia PDP vice chairman/acting state publicity secretary, Elder Abraham Amah said in the last two months, Abia pensioners have been trending for the wrong reasons, wherein Governor Otti claimed that he had cleared their outstanding nine or 10 years pension arrears.
“To show further proof that the claim is false and embellished with visible lies, there are discrepancies in the claim because, Alex Otti, his officials and the pensioners do not agree on the accurate number of months cleared.
“While his commissioner for finance said nine years, Otti in the United States, said 10 years and pensioners insist that only a certain percentage of the nine months arrears owed them since the inception of the Otti administration were cleared. At this point, we will leave the judgment to discerning Abians,” the PDP said.
Amah said earlier last week, the enlarged Executive Council-in-session of the Abia chapter of the National Pensioners Union (NUP), released a press statement dissociating itself from any agreement entered between the government and pensioners which purportedly agreed that pensioners forgo all outstanding arrears as a condition for the regular payment of their monthly pension.
The PDP spokesman said that a few days later, Governor Otti, during a press briefing, responded to claims by the enlarged Executive Council-in-session of the NUP, Abia State chapter, that they never agreed to forfeit their outstanding arrears as a condition for the payment of their monthly pensions and said that it was a huge joke for the NUP to claim that it was a mistake and that the section should be expunged.
He went further to accuse Otti of taking advantage of the desperation of the pensioners to insert that obnoxious clause in that agreement, adding that such an action is the height of infidelity, especially as he had promised several times, during the campaigns and after the elections that he would clear any pension arrears he met in office.
