The Chairman of the Contributory Pension Scheme Retirees Welfare Association, Edo State chapter, Mr Andrew Asemota, has alleged that they have been treated like slaves after putting in 35 years of their lives into public service.

He disclosed this when he led members of the association on a courtesy call to the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State council, at their secretariat in Benin.

Mr Asemota said the scheme they were compelled to enrol into by the previous administration was not favourable to them, considering the number of years they had put into service.

?In 2010, Adams Oshiomhole government passed a bill and said those with less than 10 years below should be exempted for the Contributory Pension Scheme.

?The idea was that, those who are to be in the Contributory Pension Scheme when they retire, it is from what they contributed, they will be paid their gratuity and their monthly pension.

?But in 2017 January, all of a sudden, when the former governor, Obaseki came to power November 2016, workers in Edo State just saw sudden reduction from our January salaries. For what reason? Nobody there was able to explain. In February, it was the same thing.

?Then in March, in 2017, it was the same thing. It was there, after awhile, all of a sudden in a Commando style, we saw financial institutions in all ministries, all MDAs saying that they should be mandated to come and enrol workers into the Contribution Pension Scheme. That was why the deduction started in January 2017.

?So, that was how the 10 years bill passed by Adams Oshiomhole was thrown aside.

?Eventually, when we retired from January 2022, when it was time to pay us our gratuity, we discovered that even those on grade level 17 were paid as gratuity less than N2.7 million.

?Those who retired from grade level 16 after 35 years got less than N2.3 million. It started going down like that. And eventually it got to a state where some retirees were paid N800,000 for 35 years and were paid off.

?And since that date till today, those ones no longer receive N1 as monthly pension. So, we discovered that this thing was killing.

?We tried to make an appeal to the governor, you know, he refused. And that the time he introduced us into this Contributory Pension Scheme, we were already at the verge of our retirement.

?Most of us at that time join the service when it was Bendel. Not when it was even Edo at all. Most of us at that time, have already spent more than 25 years, 26 years, 27 years in the service,? Asemota said.

He said there is an urgent need for the present administration to look into the scheme so that the lives of those who have retired from service and those who are about to retire will not be miserable.

?Most of our members are dying. So, if you look at old age, it is an expensive venture because you wake up, you sleep, you know, sometimes, ailments just suddenly develop. So, these are the things we encounter.

?And most of our members, you see that are already ageing also have one ailment or the other to contend with. Some of these have children in school. Some of them have no house of their own.

?So, we are going to solicit your support to help us appeal to government because after now, we tend to start going on appearing maybe on television, radio stations to help us appeal to our government.

?They should also help us to echo our recommendations so that the world can hear. So that the government can also hear that this is exactly what we are facing,? Asemota said.

Responding, the Chairman of the NUJ, Edo State council, Dr Festus Alenkhe, said the union would appeal to the state government to carry out investigations into the scheme to find out why some of the pensioners were being paid so little out of their contributions.

He also advised the association to write to the State House of Assembly to review the scheme. (Daily Sun)