Osun Pensioners Protest Nonpayment Gratuity, 50 Per Cent Pension

By Abdulrofiu Agboola

Pensioners of 2011 and 2012 sets in Osun State have accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of deliberately impoverishing them by refusing to pay their gratuity.

Osun pensioners during the protest at Olaiya, Osogbo.

The pensioners who trooped out on Wednesday in Osogbo to protest what they described as poor treatment being meted on them by Aregbesola, also rejected the 50 percent pension being paid to them.

As early as 7:00am, the pensioners had gathered at Fakunle where they set out for the protest by matching through Alekuwodo-Oke-Fia-Old-Garage and Ola-Iya areas of Osogbo.

The protesters occupied the Ola-Iya junction for over an hour, a development that disturbed the free flow of traffics.

Carrying placards with various inscriptions, the petitioners hurled abusive words and reigned curses on Aregbesola, who they called a wicked Governor.

Addressing journalists at the protest ground, Mr Ilesanmi Omoniyi who is the Chairman for the 2011 and 2012 pensioners, threatened that they would be disrupting government activities henceforth if their gratuity and full pension are not paid.

Omoniyi said Aregbesola deliberately excluded them from benefitting from the N34bn bailout fund released to him by the Federal Government, lamenting that some of the pensioners have died untimely while others were ‘between life and death’.

He stressed that majority of the pensioners were one ailment or the other and they could not afford to buy drugs as a result of nonpayment of their gratuity and 50 per cent payment of their pension.