Uche Durueke, Executive Director of Centre for Peace Across Borders, has said that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), through court judgment, stopped Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha from making illegal deductions from Imo State pensioners’ account.

Durueke, who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun, stated that Imo State government issued a notice where it unilaterally cut the pension benefits of the pensioners.

According to him: “Whether it is N1 or N2 that the pensioner gets, it should be 100 percent.

“The government slashed 60 percent and said that it would give them 40 percent and the pensioners protested it different times.

“The Nigerian Bar Association stepped in and decided that it would give them legal assistance. I had the privilege to lead the legal team for the NBA and we went to court and our case was that the government hadn’t the power to slash the pension of the pensioners; that that particular act was illegal.

“The matter proceeded into arguments and the court heard us and gave judgement in favour of the pensioners.

Durueke expressed dissatisfaction that pensioners are not being paid regularly as they ought to be paid.

“From the documentation that I have, the amount that the government owes the pensioners is more than the amount it said that it would pay”, he added.

•Excerpted from a Daily Sun report