Retired Ebonyi State civil servants yet to receive their retirement benefits have called on Governor Francis Nwifuru to come to their aid on account of hunger following the economic hardship faced by the nation.
The affected retirees who expressed dismay, said they were assured by Governor Nwifuru since September 2023 that their gratuities and accumulated pensions would be paid by December, 2023, but have not gotten anything.
They said they had been suffering throughout the eight years of former governor David Umahi, before Nwifuru decided to start addressing the matter.
They noted that some of them are already developing cold feet, lamenting that the exercise had stopped when it got to their turn.
Some of the affected retirees who spoke to OsunDailyNG in Abakiliki, the Ebonyi State capital, on Saturday, praised Nwifuru for raising their hopes but appealed to him to remember his assurance he made to them as they were still expecting to be paid like others.
The committee set up by the state government to pay the gratuities and pensions owed the retirees when the state was created, from 1996 to 2021, headed by Professor Adeline Idike only succeeded in paying the retirees who were screened in November and December 2022.
But since then, nothing has been heard of the Adeline Idike Committee which appears to have wound up, thereby raising fears that the remaining retirees yet to be paid may have been forgotten once again.
All efforts made to speak with the state Head of Service, Mrs Rita-Mary Okoro, on the matter were unsuccessful.
