MEMBERS of the NIPOST Nigerian Union of Pensioners, on Wednesday, shut down all post offices across Lagos and prevented a workshop of the postal agency from holding at Ijora.
The pensioners, most of whom were retrenched in 2006, protested non-payment of their arrears for 69 months and the non-payment of their gratuities.
According to the pensioners, the Post Master-General and the Accountant-General had been hoodwinking them for months.
Speaking on behalf of the pensioners, Comrade Joseph Fajemilusi, a member of the Pensioners Board of Trustees who led the protest at Ikeja Post Office, said the pensioners were tired of being maltreated.
“The Accountant-General (AG), in collaboration with the Post Master-General (PMG), are playing on our lives. The AG tells us to go to the PMG, while the PMG tells us to go to the AG.
“We are tired of being tossed around. Even when IGI, the underwriter, gave them the money, they held onto it for long. We only get paid a month anytime we protest and we are tired of this.
“So, many of us are bedridden and we have lost 421 members to poverty and sickness since 2006. We can’t pay rent and we have become liabilities to families and friends. Except PMG is removed, our future is not bright,” he said.
Another pensioner, Michael Sanni, said what made their situation more pathetic was that the Minister of Communications had not intervened in the crisis.
The pensioners stated that there would be no surrender until the government listened to them.
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