Retired high court judge leads protest by Osun pensioners owed 18 month pension arrears

RETIRED Osun State High Court judge Justice Folahanmi Oloyede led hundreds of retirees to protest against the non-payment of their gratuities and pensions by Governor Rauf Aregbesola as demonstrations on the matter gather pace in the capital Oshogbo.

Over the last three days, Osun State pensioners have taken to the streets of the capital Oshogbo to protest the non-payment of their gratuities and pension arrears pointing out that thousands of their colleagues have died as a result of hunger. Prince Ganiyu Salawu, the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in the state, said the government is presently owing over 18 months pension arrears with huge gratuities.

Back in 2015, Justice Oloyede had written a petition against Governor Aregbesola’s administration, detailing the alleged failure of the government in many areas, including the non-payment of workers’ salaries and pensions. She was eventually recommended for a compulsory retirement by the National Judicial Council.

Yesterday, the retired judge, who was helped into a mini truck used by the protesting pensioners as their platform in Oshogbo, urged the retirees to bring their permanent voter cards while coming for the final day of the protest on today. She sang labour songs and urged the elderly protesters not to be weary in the demand for their rights, saying they would all be alive to collect their entitlements.

According to Justice Oloyede, the primary duties of any responsible government was the welfare of the citizens and their security. She said any government that failed in the two areas had failed woefully in the discharge of its primary duties, urging the pensioners to be persistent in their struggle to ensure that their pensions and gratuities were paid.

“Labourers deserve their wages and it is covetousness to spend what belongs to other people, it is a crime to spend pensions and gratuities of the people and deny them their rights. We are not beggars, we worked for the entitlements and the government saved this money for us while we were serving the state,” Justice Oloyede added.

One of the leaders of Forum of 2011/2012 Retirees, Alhaji Yemi Lawal, said the state government was owing some of the pensioners about 18 months as a result of part payment of their pensions. He added that the state government has concentrated on infrastructural development at the expense of workers and pensioners’ welfare.

Meanwhile, one of the retirees, a 78-year-old school teacher, Joseph Olaoye, slumped during the protest. His colleagues rushed him to the bus belonging to the NUP parked at the venue of the protest and gave him water and glucose.

Mr Olaoye, who was a teacher at AUD Primary School in the Gbonmi area of Oshogbo, became stable and refused to leave the scene, sitting inside the bus until the end of the protest. Osun State information commissioner Adelani Baderinwa, however, described the pensioners as ungrateful people who had refused to acknowledge the efforts made by the governor to pay them.

He said: “It is out of place to say that the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola is insensitive to the plight of the pensioners. The protesting pensioners are out for a cheap blackmail against the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

“It is on record that this group of pensioners had at one time or the other in the past lied against the government of the State of Osun. The government wishes to call the attention of the people of the State of Osun to the fact that the 2011/2012 group of pensioners does not represent the totality of pensioners in the state as they are politicians and not pensioners in pursuit of political matters."

Mr Adelani Baderinwa added: “It amounts to ingratitude, mischief and politicisation of fact to accuse Aregbesola of not paying pensions and gratuities by anybody. It is very unfortunate that some of our senior citizens allowed themselves to be used by politicians to disrupt the ongoing progress of the state.”