A
pensioner in Benue state has committed suicide leaving a message indicating
that he could no longer bear the shame and hardship.
State
chairman of Local Government Retirees, under the aegis of Coalition of Local
Government Retirees, Comrade Michael Vembe, told journalists in Makurdi at the
gate of Government House that one of their members, Gabriel Nomishan, from
Taraku in Gwer East local government area, had committed suicide last week
after attending one of the screening exercises in Makurdi and discovered that
there was no money to pay him.
About
2075 retired local government staff on Tuesday stormed the Benue People’s
House, Makurdi, insisting that they must take the message of non-payment of
pension arrears, amounting N1.1 billion, to Governor Samuel Ortom themselves
since all the letters written to him had fallen on deaf ears.
Vembe,
who alongside his colleagues, spent a night at the gate of the Peoples House,
said the retirees had converged at the gate of the Benue People’s House,
Makurdi, on Tuesday to seek audience with the governor, but to no avail as they
were told that the governor was attending to more pressing state matters.
He
sent N100, 000 for their fare back home, but they turned it down and slept by
the gate.
“Today,
at about 10am, he drove to the gate and attended to us by directing the Special
Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to list one of us into the
Joint Allocation Committee (JAC) with the aim of building confidence in the
distribution of resources,” he said.
Ortom
assured them of his determination to clear all salary and pension arrears and
advised them to “go home and wait for what government is doing” for their
welfare.
He
directed the inclusion of the group’s chairman, Comrade Michael Vembe, on the
committee to serve as what he termed “their ears and eyes
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