Imo pensioners in tears

… As cheques for 3-month arrears bounce

… Senior citizens bemoan ill-treatment by govt

It has been lamentation and expression of anguish, sorrow and tears among pensioners in Imo State over what some of them have alleged as the ill-treatment in the hands of the Rescue Mission administration of Owelle Rochas Okorocha.

According to reports, the pensioners who recently received cheques at the Imo International Convention Centre (IICC) for three months arrears of pension from the government have not been able to get their cash even after lodging the cheques in their respective banks.

One pensioner who gave his name as Mr Osuagwu from one of the LGAs in Owerri zone told our roving reporter that “this cheque from (Gov) Okorocha’s people at IICC has now bounced and that is the same story from my colleagues who received theirs with me from IICC in Owerri last Friday and even Saturday.”

Nze Uwakwe, another pensioner who was seen complaining among some of his colleagues in one of the banks in Owerri said: “you see what this man is doing to his fathers and mothers. He said we should go and be collecting our money from the CGC in our communities, which was no longer good to him, he cancelled it. He has asked us to start coming to Owerri every time just for cheque.

“I slept in my relation’s house at Akabo (in Ikeduru LGA) last Friday (15th September, 2017) because we were at the IICC on that Friday up till 10pm before they announced that we should come back on Saturday to collect our cheques. Now, after suffering to get the cheque, we cannot even cash it. So what is the need for the whole punishment, what type of life is this?” he queried.

In a related development, a retired female secondary school principal who refused to tell our report her name said: “my son I am not happy at all. Why can’t you journalists tell this government to pay old people who had served this state meritoriously? You people only write and praise the government as Rescue government, what is rescue about this treatment to pensioners? You want to know my name, my name is sickness and hunger because that is what Rochas (Okorocha) wants us to answer.

“This is what we have been suffering in the hands of this government. You collect cheques and they are useless because it will not be cleared. Please tell this government to stop punishing us. If he does not want to pay us, let him not disturb us with fake cheques and verifications that amount to nothing. It is not fair at all”.