After tagging them as “Hired Crowd”, “none staff of the Delta State government”, and APC ‘sponsored protesters”, the Delta State governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has finally released N2.5 billion as payment for local government retirees after several protests.
Okowa through the Commissioner for Information, Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu during a press briefing accused them of leading a politically motivated protest against him and his government just as he accused the leader of the group, one Mrs. Helen Ejie, of misleading the public on whose responsibility it was to pay the pensioners.
Hear him: ‘”We have it on good authority that the incessant protests emanating from a section of pensioners in the state have become politically motivated.
“The leader of the protesters is Mrs Helen Ejie, a retired teacher from Iyiatu Primary School, Utagba-Ogbe in Ndokwa West. She retired in 2016 and is the coordinator of APC women in Delta North.
But in a U-turn, the state government on Monday released the sum of N5 billion for the payment of pension arrears to retirees in the state.
A statement by the State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Aniagwu said the sum of N2.5 billion was released for the payment of pension arrears for state pensioners while N2.5 billion was also released as grant to Local Government Pensions Bureau for the payment of Local Government and primary school retirees.
Aniagwu said the gesture was part of government’s efforts at ameliorating the plight of the affected senior citizens in the state.
The Information Commissioner commended Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and Vice-Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for his avowed commitment to welfare and well-being of citizens of the state.
It would be recall that in March 2022, The Story, exclusively reported that the Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, narrowly escaped been lynched by angry retirees under the platform of Delta State Local Government/Primary School Contributory Retirees.
