14th December, 2018
Okafor Ofiebor /Port Harcourt
For the second time in three days, angry retirees of the Rivers State Civil Service on Friday blocked two lanes of the Azikiwe road leading to the Government House, Port Harcourt to protest the refusal of the state government to capture their biometric details.
Hundreds of retirees in Rivers State had gone to the State Biometric Centre at the Ministry of Justice, as directed by the Head of Service, Rufus Godwin, through a radio announcement in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, only to be locked out.
The retirees had earlier blocked the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt on Wednesday, lamenting that Governor Nyesom Wike had bluntly refused to pay their pension and gratuity.
Visitors and staff could not gain access to the Government House, just as policemen watched the drama.
The protesting retirees were split into two groups. Those under the Contributory Pension Scheme and those under the old pension scheme.
Lucky Atti, the leader of Contributory Pension Scheme vowed that the protest would continue every Wednesday until Wike paid them.
“Over 90 retirees have died due to hunger. If Governor Wike says he is Mr. Project, our stomach is a vital project to be taken care of. We have served for 35 years and above and that he is supposed to pay us despite our protests, he has refused to pay. Is it fair?
“Our children have been chased out of schools, landlords have evicted most of us from our homes after spending the better part of our lives serving the government”
However, Rufus Godwin, Head of Service, kept insisting that the Rivers State Government was not owing any pensioner in the state.
He said the state government suspected that the protesters were being sponsored by the opposition.