BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
RETIRED Civil Servants in Osun State, on Wednesday, staged a protest over the alleged failure of Governor Gboyega Oyetola to pay their pensions and gratuities.
Many retirees, under the aegis of Osun State Contributory Pension Retirees, claimed that the state government had yet to pay their entitlements.
The old protesters had thronged the streets in the state before they finally converged on the entrance of the Secretariat to continue their protest.
The angry retirees, in a bid to make their protest more effective, shut down the state secretariat and denied both Government officials and workers access into their offices.
The protest took another twist when the Head of Service, Festus Olowogboyega, approached the protesters to address them.
The aggrieved retirees, upon sighting him, booed the Head of Service.
The senior citizens reportedly subjected the Head of Service of the state to ridicule while he was trying to address them during the demonstration.
The HoS tried his best to pacify the protesters but the pensioners turned deaf ears to his pleas as they were shouting, “go, go, we don’t want to hear anything from you; you are all thieves.”
The Point’s correspondent, however, observed that Olowogboyega displayed a high level of maturity as he was just smiling and still trying to calm them down.
When the security men who were on the ground to monitor the situation observed that the pensioners were adamant, they whisked the Head of Service into a Government vehicle before he drove off.
The pensioners gathered at Olaiya area of Osogbo in protest while bearing placards with various inscriptions like, “we are dying of hunger”, “Masses, help us, we are dying”, “Dead people cannot enjoy infrastructure”, etc.
They were also singing different solidarity songs, urging stakeholders to come to their aid and alleging that the state government was punishing them unduly.
They said the state government had refused to pay their 30 months half-salary arrears (2016 till date); gratuities (2015 till date); and monthly pensions since 2015.
Awodele Abiodun, who led the protest, urged stakeholders to assist the helpless and some homeless senior citizens to get their entitlements.
He disclosed that despite their sickness and old age, the state government had neglected them, adding that many of them had died of hunger.
“Some of us find it difficult to even buy drugs and other essentials because our monies have not been paid by the state government,” he lamented.
Another protester, Sunday Idowu, said the failure of the government to pay pensioners was an act of irresponsibility.
He said, “Oyetola came on board and he’s boasting of not owing workers salaries. What then happens to some of us dying because of the negligence caused by his boss, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who is now the current Minister of Interior.
“We are dying of hunger and that’s why we took our protest to major streets of Osogbo for the stakeholders to help intervene.”
