The Rivers State governorship candidate of the Labour Party Beatrice Itubo has accusing Governor Nyesom Wike of not saying the truth about the state of pensioners in the state.
She made this statement in a chat with newsmen after Wike denied claims that he owes workers and pensioners in the state.
In her words “The governor has always said he does not owe monthly salaries and those they are paying monthly pensions but the governor owes arrears of gratuities that have run into hundreds of billions and he refuses to pay.
“People that have finished working, and that have used their youthful years to serve the state are not paid. And also, since he came on board, he has not promoted any worker, that is what we are complaining about.
“When he said he does not owe anybody, I don’t know what he is talking about.”
She added that “It is still where we are; we have been fighting and quarrelling, nothing is happening. Now, we are giving this thing a shot. There is a saying in my place that anything that is remaining one is already finished. Based on the numerous letters we had written, at a point, they (government) said workers should come for biometrics, they want to do this, they want to do that, and people have been going, but how much has been released so far in a state where you owe workers almost N200bn?
“As at the last time we did the calculation almost a year ago, it amounted to over N160bn, and every month, people retire. From that time till now, is it not up to N200bn? When you want to pay money, you release between N200m and N500m and you said I was shouting and when they heard I was now going for the governorship position, they felt that workers would stand by me and the next thing is that workers should come for biometrics because they want to start paying them.
“As we speak, which worker has been paid? Nothing has happened, but workers are really aware of what is happening. How many months are remaining? Their days are numbered. Let them leave so that I can come in and pay workers and threat them the way they should be treated because they are humans.”
