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The 2011/2012 group of retirees under the aegis of the Good Governance Support Group (GGSG) of the Osun State branch of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has said that no fewer than 522 retirees have lost their lives because of the non-payment of their pension as at when due.
The group’s chairman and secretary, Comrades Gbenga Oyeleke and Sola Olojede respectively, also insisted that the Rauf Aregbesola administration still owed pensioners in the state arrears of seven months. Both men spoke in reaction to a media interview granted by the state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Jacobs Adekomi, titled, ‘NLC affirms Osun govt not owing salaries’.
Oyeleke and Olojede, who strongly condemned Adekomi’s stage-managed interview in the electronics media, insisted that they lost some of their members to the cold hands of death mysteriously, without enjoying the fruit of their labour due to the insincerity of Adekomi, “who was not sincere to the plight of the workers and pensioners alike in the state.”
The pensioners alleged that Adekomi and his cohorts signed the unauthorised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government, in order to ensure that Aregbesola diverted the bailout funds.
They noted: “Our attention has been drawn to the purported stage-managed electronic media interview, where the so-called Osun State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr Adekomi, stated: ‘Osun State government not owing workers in the State.’ We want to put it on record that Adekomi of NLC did not have power to speak for pensioners in the state as Mr Aregbesola is still owing pensioners seven months pension due.
“We wish to state here categorically that Mr Adekomi is not fit to be a labour leader in all ramifications and, also, not sincere with the welfare of the workers he is leading in the state. Instead of fighting for the interest of the workers, he chose to collude with Mr Aregbesola
led-government to plug Osun into a state of quagmire, whereby the unborn generations will suffer the consequences.”
They alleged that Adekomi had concluded arrangements to collect the sum of N20 million from Aregbesola for the celebration of this year’s May Day. They urged the governor to pay the backlogs of pension arrears of retirees without further delay.
•Photo shows Governor Aregbesola.
