- DELTA PENSIONS: Okowa, Omo-Agege trade accusations
…Omo-Agege sponsoring pensioners protest against my govt – Okowa
…Okowa is inflicting senior citizens with hunger, hardship – Omo-Agege
Delta Government, weekend, accused the Deputy President of the Senate and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of sponsoring local government pensioners protests against Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the state government.
But in a swift reaction, Senator Omo-Agege chided Okowa of running an insensitive government, which has continued to inflict hunger, hardship and premature death on senior citizens of the state.
However, the Delta State Commissioner of Information, Charles Aniagwu said that despite the efforts of the state government in assisting the local governments to defray their outstanding pension liabilities, Omo-Agege and the APC were bent on sponsoring protests on the matter to score cheap political points.
Aniagwu disclosed this at a news conference in Asaba and urged the general public to be wary of the protesters as they were obviously playing the cards of their political sponsors.
He said that some of the retirees appreciate the effort of the state government in helping to clear the outstanding pension liabilities and remarked that a certain woman leader of the APC was being used to blackmail the governor and paint him in bad light.
According to him, we have it on good authority that the All Progressives Congress (APC) have again engineered a protest that is billed to take place on Monday.
“You will recall that last time i briefed you on this issue, I told you about a lady who is the woman leader of the APC in one of our local governments.
“She is a retired local government staff who has continued to use her position in APC to mobilise a few other persons to protest against the government on account of the issue of outstanding pension liabilities.
“This is somebody who worked for the local government and as a state government we have continued to assist our local governments to meet up with a whole number of obligations in terms of paying salaries of their workers and at the same time assisting them in defraying liabilities owed their pensioners.
“This woman out of politics and inspite of the fact that her colleagues have continued to appreciate the effort of the state government towards ameliorating their plight by extending some grants to the local governments.
“She has decided to turn it into politics and next week they have been engineered to go and protest again to embarrass the governor.
“They have done it before and they want to do it again and as part of their arrangement they will film it and put on the social media and make it look as if we are not doing what we needed to do,”
He challenged Deltans to ask them questions on where they worked and who is supposed to pay their pensions even though the state government had continued to be magnanimous in helping the local governments.
“When you see them ask them which tier of government did they work for, ask them whether the state government have not continously assisted the local governments to pay salaries of those who are working for the local governments?
“Ask them whether their pension liabilities which has been outstanding even before this administration came to be whether we have helped them to defray the outstanding liabilities?
“We needed to let you know that these protests are being sponsored by the Governorship Candidate of the APC, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege to go and protest and make it look as if we are not responsible even when we have continued to extend assistance to the local governments.
“You will recall that we concluded plans to extend N10 billion grant not loan to the local government but unfortunately the bridging finance didn’t come in but we are now taking steps to ensure that in the next couple of weeks that we are able to extend that grant to them.
“We are doing this because we believe that these persons are Deltans whether they worked for the local government or not we could still take steps in assisting them to boost not just their economy but that of the state.
“But inspite of these effort, this woman who is being engineered to mobilise other persons in the APC still want to begin to move along that line,”
He said the Okowa administration would remain focused in delivering on its promises to the people and commended Deltans for their support.
Meanwhile, Spokesman of the Delta State All Progressives Congress, APC, campaign council, Olorogun Ima Niboro, advised the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, to stop chasing shadows and pay senior citizens their pensions and gratuities after serving the oil-rich state meritoriously.
Niboro who expressed regret at the ill-treatment meted to pensioners by the Okowa government, promised them that the administration of APC gubernatorial candidate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege , will give them a better deal, and place high premium on clearing outstanding pensions and gratuities.
Responding to an allegation by the Delta State Commissioner of Information, Charles Aniagwu, who accused Senator Omo-Agege of sponsoring women to protest non-payment of pensions of primary school retirees, Niboro said the allegation is baseless, unfounded and deserves no serious attention.
According to the former Presidential Spokesman, the government should stop the blame game and pay senior citizens who have served the state meritoriously their deserved entitlements.
“Was it Omo-Agege that made them not pay pensions? Is it Omo-Agege that is making them take loans in billions to prosecute PDP Presidential Election, while pensioners who gave their entire lives in the service of the state remain unpaid? Some have died or are dying in abject penury. Do you need anyone to sponsor hungry people to pour out on the streets?
“Okowa keeps chasing shadows, always leaving the real issues and blaming everyone but his incompetence and insensitivity to the plight of our people.
“Omo-Agege doesn’t need to sponsor anyone. Anger, bitterness and sheer suffering is sending people into the streets.
“We advise Governor Ifeanyi A. Okowa to change his ways. Delta State has never had it this bad,” Niboro stated.
The former Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also dismissed allegation by PDP Governorship candidate, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori that Omo-Agege’s reign as Secretary to the State Government was characterized by ‘parochialism and abuse of power’.
The campaign spokesperson pointed out that Omo-Agege distinguished himself in all his appointments.
He emphasised that the Delta Central lawmaker not only invented ways to uncomplicated governance but also instituted the process of ease and transparency in state parastatals and institutions during his reign as SSG.
