The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti has promised to pay arrears of pension to all retired civil servants in the state if elected governor.
Otti who made the promise in Umuahia, yesterday when he visited members of the state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) decried the neglect of the members of the union by the ruling PDP in the state and described pensioners as the foundation and pillar upon which the nation was built.
“Our senior citizens have not been treated fairly. These people gave their all in their service to the nation as civil servants and do not deserve the kind of treatment being meted out to them. The inability of the past governments in the country to treat its senior citizens justly contributed to the stagnations the country is witnessing.” Otti said.
The APGA governorship candidate promised to end medical tourism in the state and disclosed plans to establish three state of the hospitals at Aba, Ohafia and Umuahia.
Otti who maintained that politics has become a serious business to be left in the hands of politics, pledged to implement free and compulsory education and massive upgrade of infrastructure within the first four years of his administration.
One of the pensioners, Ndubuisi Udensi expressed gratitude to the APGA candidate for the visit stressing that Otti would perform well if elected governor citing his track record when he held forte as the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank Plc.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that over 500 pensioners on Wednesday, stormed the Abia Government House in Umuahia to protest the non-payment of their arrears of pension and gratuities which they said, had lingered for16 years.