Another drama to the manner pensioners in Imo State are carrying out their quest to have their pension allowances paid by the government was noticed on Tuesday when suspected thugs attacked them on their way to Government House, Owerri.
Earlier, the leader of the Pensions Intervention Commission, PIC, a group formed from out of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Imo State Chapter, had been invited by the security agencies, detained for hours before release and warned not to mobilize his colleagues for protest on Owerri streets again.
Apparently not disturbed by the security threat, pensioners in the State for the fifth time took to the streets to protest non payment allowances.
According to our correspondent who monitored the show, the pensioners had gathered at the Freedom Square at about 9am for prayers to herald the protest.
First sign of danger was that for the first time since they started the struggle, the Freedom Square Gate was cordoned forcing them to hang around the adjoining roads where they met, prayed and took off.
However, on their way to take position at the Government House Roundabout facing the entrance gate, suspected young men believed to be hired thugs arrived with three buses and descended on them using cane. While some of the pensioners were allegedly beaten, others were kicked.
The fragile looking senior citizens who could not escape the attack paid dearly for the invasion while few scampered for safety. The pensioners without stampede fell on themselves.
But for the timely intervention of one top Police Officer, the trapped pensioners would have been flogged to death. But the old men and women were undaunted as the quickly reorganized again at the roundabout.
However, another round of scene occurred, when it dawned on the thugs that they were beating their parents, a group of them came back to apologize. One of them confessed, “please don’t curse us, we were told to come and counter an attack at the Government House gate allegedly carried out by PDP youths”
The young man who refused to mention his name said they came at the instance someone who they alleged also later paid them. The video footpage of the attack has dominated the social media leading to different interpretations.
The leaders of the Pensioners Intervention Committee (PIC) led by one Comrade Ohaneje had been grilled for hours by operatives of the State Security Service, where they warned the PIC leaders to stop further demonstrations.
Trumpeta learnt that the invitation by security operatives was designed to stop the pensioners taking to the streets.
Meanwhile, the PDP has condemned what was meted to the pensioners, adding that it could be traced to the State Government.
In a statement signed by the State Publicity Secretary, Ogubundu Nwadike
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State received with heavy shock and surprise the news of the order by the current regime in Imo State for the debliberate and conscious physical assault and brutalization of elderly people that were proved to be Imo pensioners. The video recording of that evil and wicked act simply qualifies it as a crime against Heaven and Earth, God and humanity.
“This party has concluded that this regime detailing able-bodied men to publicly flog Imo senior citizens, whose only offence or crime was protesting against non-payment of their pensions for months, is a condemnable heinous sacrilege.
“This party notes that these men and women being tormented and tortured today by the Uzodimma regime were heroes and heroines past, who gave the very best part of their lives to bequeath the present generation legacies of dignity of labour among other things. The national ethos is that the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain. However, by this regime’s evil act of ordering the public flogging of these great men and women, including intellectuals, technocrats, and professionals that ensured they worked for the growth and development of Imo State, the Uzodimma regime has proved that their labour past was in vain. We choose to differ on the insincerity of this regime.
“As a party that sacrificially served Imo State and Imo people very well for seven and half months, with our award-winning Rebuild Imo administration, ably led by Governor Emeka Ihedioha CON, we are very proud to remind Imo people that we gave due honour to Imo pensioners by paying them regularly after a world-class biometric verification of pensioners exercise. History catalogues that Imo PDP government never hurt or harmed Imo pensioners.
“This party, therefore, utterly condemns in its totality that bestiality displayed by agents of this regime who saw it fit to obey the last order by the Uzodimma regime and lift their hands against fathers and mothers of men and women. Imo PDP hereby charges this regime to remember that this is a democracy and not a dictatorship. Its various acts of autocracy are anti-democracy and anti-people.
“To the illegally, unfairly and unjustly abused, molested, and assaulted Imo pensioners, their hurting families, and entire good people of Imo State, our party calls for continued calm, equanimity and peaceful conduct, while quest for justice and demand for people’s rights are continually upheld and pursued in ways and manners that are within legal ambits. Imo pensioners deserve their pensions. This regime flogging them publicly is a crime against God and humanity.”
