A group of Federal Government retirees under the aegis of Interim Association of Contributory Pension Scheme Pensioners has cried out to the Federal Government not to use their 6.02 trillion in the pension funds for infrastructure.
Rather,the pensioners urged the government to pay them without delay.
In a protest staged by the body on Thursday,at Eleyele area of Ibadan,Oyo State,the pensioners carried various placards with inscriptions such: ‘pay us our pension’,’Federal Government save our souls,pay our entitlements’,pension is our right ,not privilege’, PenCom should stop short payment of retirees’, CBN release our bond’, ‘Haba since November 2015 nothing has been paid’, don’t use our #6.02 trillion for infrastructure’,don’t kill pensioners’ , and others.
Speaking with journalists,the president of the association,Comrade(Chief) Amoo Shittu and its secretary,Comrade Adekunle Kolawole, said government defaulted by non-payment of their pension benefits under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
They said all their efforts to channel their grievances to the National Pension Commission(PenCom) proved abortive,disclosing that PenCom refused to give them audience each time they visited its office.
According to them,Pensioners are dying of nonpayment of retirement benefits
They unequivocally stated that government should stop its plan to invest the funds in infrastructure,saying their money should be paid first before any investment in infrastructure.
The pensioners had written a series of letters authorities concerned ,copies of which were shown to journalists, but until now,according to them to positive responses from them.
“Looking at what PenCom remitted to retirees’ PFAs recently,for those who retired in November and December ,2015 it is glaring that PenCom has begun to short change pensioners through dubious remittances which do not reflect the current and true value of retirees’ Accrued Rights since 2004.
“By June 2004,all the accrued right of all workers had been actuarially determined. These were kept for workers as bonds in CBN to generate interests. The idea was that the interests so generated is expected to boost the amount to be paid to each worker on retirement”, the pensioners said.
