Gridlock on Benin roads as pensioners protest unpaid pension arrears

Major roads in Benin-City, the capital of Edo State, were experienced gridlocks on Wednesday as a crowd of pensioners, in their hundreds, comprising retirees from the state civil service, protested the non-payment of their pension arrears, gratuities and non-harmonization of monthly pay.

As a result of the protests, the city centre otherwise known as Oba Ovonranmwen Square and other adjoining roads such as Sapele road, Akpakpava, Airport Road, Siluko and Sokponba were blocked, with commuters stuck in the hold-up for hours.

Speaking to newsmen on the development, the Public Relations Officer, Edo State chapter of Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) Claudette Ehanire, decried the insensitivity of the state government over the situation.

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Ehanire further confirmed that some pensioners, who retired as far back as 2008, were yet to be paid their pension arrears.

“We are here to let the world know of the sufferings of pensioners in the state. I am from the local government, I retired in 2010 and till now, I am yet to get my gratuity.

“Those who retired before me in 2008 and 2009 have not been paid their gratuities, let alone those who are just retiring. I retired on Level 15 (8), I am on N73,000, my juniors that are retiring now are on N100,000 to N200,000, this is because there was no harmonisation.

“We have written several times, the governor earmaked some money for payment of local government pension arrears. They started paying from 1982 and we were grouped, but not a single batch was cleared and some were not paid at all.

“For state pensioners, the government has paid some backlog for those who retired in 2012, they did screening for them and collected their pay advice, which means as they collect their yellow cards, they pay them their money but after collecting their yellow card, they did not credit them. Those still alive cannot even fight for it because they have no proof that they have been screened since 2017,” she said.

In order to assuage the angry pensioners, the state deputy governor, Mr. Philip Shaibu, urged for calm while noting that a committee headed by the head of service, Anthony Okungbowa, had been instituted to work out modalities for payments

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