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Tag: governor

  • Abia governorship tussle confusing, says governor

    Abia governorship tussle confusing, says governor

    •Lawyers to fight for Ikpeazu 

    Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has said the political tussle in the state is making it “atomistic” (at war with itself), thereby creating tension.

    The governor noted that such political tension was not happening in other 35 states.

    Ikpeazu spoke in Umuahia, the state capital, when he hosted a “Team of Concerned Lawyers”, who pledged to fight for the governor.

    He said the Abia governorship controversy was causing apprehension and confusion because of the ambition of one man.

    The governor said the fight was not about him but about the office he occupied.

    Ikpeazu said: “The Abuja High Court ruling denied me of the right to exercise my fundamental human right, which is the right of appeal.

    “So, if it was a case of execution, I would have been killed without giving me time to exercise my right of appeal before a court of competent jurisdiction. This is against the laws of fundamental human rights.”

    The governor said some people, who were desperate for power, planned what he likened to a coup d’état against other Abians.

    He added that such persons did not have the interest of the state at heart.

    Ikpeazu thanked the lawyers for educating the people on the need to remain calm “as the desperados have already come into the state to wreak havoc”.

    Team Leader Ogbonnaya Nwanunu said the lawyers would support the governor because of the tense political atmosphere in the state, following what he called unnecessary legal fireworks.

    Nwanunu said the lawyer were aware of the legal summersault that descended on the state.

    “So, we have come to rob minds with the governor with the aim of finding lasting solutions and the way forward to the current political crisis in the state,” he said.

    According to him, after studying the situation, the lawyers concluded that it was a charade, which would collapse like similar cases before it.

    Nwanunu said: “The only place where a man who did not contest election became a governor, like what happened in one of the neighbouring states, will never happen again as the Electoral Act has been amended.

    “The case in question made the Electoral Act to be amended. So, what is happening in the state, where a man would dream of being a governor and wake up trying to make his dream a reality, is a rape of democracy and a coup d’état.

    “We, as a group, will not allow such to stand, for the sake of today and the future.”

     

  • Ikpeazu insists after sack by court: I’m still governor

    Ikpeazu insists after sack by court: I’m still governor

    Governor Okezie Ikpeazu yesterday urged Abia State residents not to panic after a court ordered him to vacate office immediately.

    In a statement, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor,  Enyinnaya Appolos, said Ikpeazu will appeal the judgment

    The governor noted that as an appointee of the Abia State Government from 2011 to 2014, when he served as the General Manager, Abia State Passengers Integrated Manifest and Safety Scheme (ASPIMSS), and first Deputy General Manager, Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) Aba and Environs, before his resignation in October 2014 to contest the governorship election, his taxes within the period  were deducted at source. When he needed  his tax clearance in 2014, he applied to the Abia State Board of Internal Revenue and was issued with his tax receipts for the period in question, he said.

    Ikpeazu maintained that he remained the governor, according to the law, and will await the final determination of the matter by the appellate courts.

    Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday voided Ikpeazu’s election on the ground that he was not qualified to have contested.

    The judge held that the evidence before the court supported the plaintiff’s position that Ikpeazu made a false claim in relation to the information he submitted to his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for onward submission to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Justice Abang, who upheld arguments by plaintiffs’ lawyers Alex Iziyon (SAN) and Femi Falana (SAN), said having lied about his tax clearance certificates and personal income tax receipts, Ikpeazu failed to meet the requirement under Article 14(a) of the PDP Electoral Guideline for its primary elections.

    The judge said as against the requirement under Article 14(a) of the PDP Guideline, requiring a candidate for its primary election to provide evidence of his payment of personal income tax as at when due in the last three years, there was no reliable evidence before the court that Ikpeazu paid his tax regularly three years before he contested the party’s primary on December 8, 2014.

    The judge spoke in two separate judgments in the suits by Dr. Samson Uchechukwu Ogah vs. PDP and Obasi Uba Eleagbara and 2 others vs. PDP and two others.

    “He lied in his declaration to INEC that he fulfilled all requirements to stand election, whereas he did not. The issue before the court is disqualification to participate in the first defendant (PDP’s) primary election for Abia State. It is not whether he was qualified under Section 177 of the Constitution to contest the governorship election.

    “Since there is no provision for independent candidate, it is material that he must first meet the PDP requirement as stipulated in Article 14(a) of the PDP Electoral Guidelines,” the judge said.

    The judge said since Ikpeazu was not qualified to contest the PDP primary by making false claim in his tax information submitted to his party, and which his party later submitted to INEC, he breached Section 31 of the Constitution.

    Justice Abang ordered the PDP to submit  to INEC as its candidate for the last governorship  election in Abia, the name of the aspirant with the second highest votes in the party’s last primary because Ikpeazu, who came first, was not qualified to participate in the primary. He said the votes recorded in the primary by Ikpeazu were wasted votes.

    The judge, who identified several discrepancies in the tax documents Ikpeazu submitted to his party, noted that the three receipts bore the same date of July 4 for the annual income tax he claimed to have paid in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

    He noted that if, as he claimed that his annual income tax was deducted annually by his employer, being a civil servant, he ought to have simply obtained evidence of such payment from his employer and not obtain receipts form the State Tax Board, with similar dates and serial numbers. He noted that one of the receipts carried December 31, 2011 as its issuance date, but pointed out that the date was a Saturday, a no-work day in Abia State. He wondered why the receipt was issued on Saturday.

    “Tax clearance certificate submitted by the 3rd defendant (Ikpeazu) to INEC is false. It is not tax clearance known to law. Ikpeazu was and is not a candidate of the PDP for the election held in April 2015. The plaintiff’s claim deserves to succeed and judgment is given in his favour,” the judge said.

    Justice Abang declared that Ikpeazu’s INEC Form 001 and the tax clearance certificate contained false information regarding his tax payment. He ordered his disqualification from the primary election.

    “Having failed to pay his income tax as at when due, and having made false claim, he is not a fit and proper person to contest the election. Order is made disqualifying the 3rddefendant from contesting the election for submitting tax documents containing false information regarding his tax payment.

    “It is declared that the person, who scored the second highest votes, Dr. Samson Oga, is the rightful candidate of the PDP for the election. Order is made directing the PDP to forward his name (Oga’s) to INEC an its rightful candidate for the election,” the judge said.

    The judge dismissed all the preliminary objections raised against both suits by the defendants and held, among others that his court has the jurisdiction to hear the cases, the plaintiffs posses the locus standi to institute the cases and that the issues raised for determination were not overtaken by event.

     

  • Governor, Akeredolu call for extension of voters’ registration

    Governor, Akeredolu call for extension of voters’ registration

    Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the continuous voters’ registration to enable willing and eligible voters exercise their franchise.

    The continuous voters’ registration ended yesterday in Ondo.

    Mimiko, who spoke yesterday when he inspected the exercise in some wards in Ondo, noted that the number of enthusiastic eligible voters might not be captured within the five days stipulated for the exercise. The five days elapsed yesterday.

    Mimiko was accompanied by the lawmaker representing Ondo East/West in the House of Representatives, Joseph Akinlaja.

    He said if INEC wanted to fulfill its ultimate aim of allowing every eligible Nigerian to exercise his or her franchise, the electoral body must extend the time of the exercise.

    “You can see that today, being the last day of the exercise, the people are still waiting. Everywhere I have been to, it’s the same story of many young men and women waiting to register.”

    “There is no question about the fact that there are many of those who are willing to get registered that will not be accommodated within this time frame. So we will continue to plead with INEC to appreciate the fact that extension is very essential. The ultimate aim of INEC is to ensure that every wiling Nigerian be given the opportunity,” he said.

    Former president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Rotimi Akerodulu has also appealed to INEC to extend the ongoing Continuous Voters’ Registration to ensure that some people are not disenfranchised.

    Akeredolu, who made the appeal in a statement yesterday by Aketi Media Group, said he had received many complaints about the exercise, adding that a number of technical itches had been reported since it began five days ago.

  • Governor of infinite jest

    Governor of infinite jest

    Before Ayo Fayose became governor, few Nigerians had heard of the term “stomach infrastructure.” But our politicians chewed the phrase like gum. They knew it and bandied it about sometimes as an act of infinite jest, sometimes to boost their negotiations, to show their relevance, or desperation for contracts or “dividends of democracy.” At the worst, they deployed it to blackmail office holders, like ministers, governors, commissioners, local government chairmen, even presidents.

    But the governor of infinite jest, Ayo Fayose, “chickened” it into common speech. It lost its cultic power and esoteric significance among politicians. He did it when he campaigned for governor of Ekiti State.  As governor, he said he wanted to evince the common touch. He stopped by the road side to buy roasted plantain, or boli, or roasted corn. He cast himself as a master of vernacular conversations. He spoke the people’s lingo. He was a parody of Chinua Achebe’s Chief Nanga in A Man of The People. Ironically, Nanga is a parody of a man of the people. That makes Fayose a parody of a parody. A dark comedian, like a character out of Mark Twain’s novel.

    He demonstrated it at a year’s end and distributed fowls and rice to the people. Never mind that he did not test the birds with any health specialist. The people hurtled to the gifts, in spite of the scrawny necks, dull and balding plumes and thinning thighs. Never mind it was a foul gift. The people were hungry and poor. They had a helluva yuletide.  It is like the cynicism of giving a kwashiorkor fowl as gift to kwashiorkor people, although the Ekiti people were not that poor. But the spirit of the giver was.

    At that time, it seemed Fayose had come to represent the model to govern. Forget roads, schools, hospitals. They belonged to dreamers. Give the people food, splash the cash to them on the streets. That amounted to the common touch.

    So, we did not need philosophers. No need  for London here. We were satisfied with poor teachers. Don’t mess with them. Don’t ask for standards, don’t test them. Let our kid go to school to learn to be a fool. Let the drugs disappear from schools. Healing will descend from prayer schools. Don’t fish out the Methuselahs in civil service who would not retire because, from the prayer schools, their age can never reach the retirement bar. To tamper with that is to touch the forbidden thing.

    No time to dream, but to eat. Send down rice bags and chicken wings. Fayose became the beach head a new “nanny state.” The nanny does not make money. Does not provide, has no imagination for productivity, no sense of managerial adventure. The nanny waits for the provider and provides what she gets to the children. The child falls in love with nanny because, when the father or mother, are not around, it is the nanny that plays the role. So it is possible to love the nanny and hate the daddy.

    So, Fayose played nanny. When the child grows up, he or she will know the nanny’s status. Last week, Ekiti people knew. The veil fell. They no longer called for stomach infrastructure. They had developed cramps. They had stomach upset. The nanny could no longer provide for the children. Rebellion shook the house. So stomach upset made a show in the open as crowds of discontents filled the streets, bearing signs, calling for the probe of their nanny. This is the end of a love story. They are calling for the man to resign.

    It is a pity that democracy can sometimes make a mistake to correct itself. The people of Ekiti State just realised they entered “one chance.” How do they value Fayose now: “as the dead carcasses of unburied men that do corrupt my air,” apology to Shakespeare in Coriolanus, a play of protest.

    The majority has been known to be wrong. Ekitis will not be the last. The United States knows that they created ISIS and today’s recession by voting George W. Bush, who took America pell-mell into Iraq. We are witnessing BREXIT remorse already in England. Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill called the majority foolish.

    What happened last week is what to expect when a Fayose seduces a people, and democracy caves in to delinquency. He cannot pay salary. He takes his comic show to the streets by playing a protester. Now he says Zenith Bank gave him the N4.7 billion. EFCC should probe that allegation. We know bank chiefs have been complicit in some high-level crimes. Is the governor of infinite jest ratting or clowning again? Let’s listen. Good thing that Magu says his agency will soon barrel into the bank vaults. I also think that the EFCC should have sought court permission to freeze his account. The argument that investigation and proceedings are different is still subjective. Let the court give its verdict so it does not appear as witch hunt.

    Fayose is a reason some call for the removal of immunity from governors. But we know that Nigeria is not yet ripe for that. Remove immunity and we shall have a chaos of impunity in court cases distracting governors. The law wants legislatures to check them. But the governors have checked the lawmakers with stomach infrastructure.

    The governor of infinite jest has tarred Buhari as a false charioteer of change. Now he is the physician-comedian who must first heal himself. But it is no laughing matter.

  • Shettima: ‘why I never owed #2.6b monthly salaries’

    Shettima: ‘why I never owed #2.6b monthly salaries’

    Notwithstanding the Boko Haram insurgency and it’s financial effects on the Government, ‎workers in Borno State have never been owed their salaries in the last 60 months, covering June, 2011 to May, 2016, the State Governor, Kashim Shettima has said.

    Shettima who spoke when he hosted members of the Borno Elders Forum and the Business Community in the State for Ramadan Iftar at the Government House on Monday night noted that even though it was sometimes difficult he made it a duty to regularly provide two billion, six hundred million nira (N2.6b) every month to pay salaries while at the same time making expenditures on feeding  internally displaced persons and carrying out reconstructions in the last five years. 

    “Ordinarily, I don’t consider payment of salaries as achievement because salaries are debts, people worked and should be paid. However, in today’s Nigeria, payment of salaries has become rare and this makes it an achievement especially for a State like Borno that which has been battling with serious security challenges and spending billions over that. Well, we have sustained payment of salaries for an economic reason. It is elementary knowledge that salaries of workers mostly stimulate local economies especially in a situation where export is cut and there is gross decline in the number of persons coming into the State not to talk of doing business. We made it a duty to inject funds into the system through prompt payment of salaries by 25th of every month even while we were dealing with serious crisis of rebuilding communities from 2011 to date. We had to pay salaries because workers were at a point the only buyers of commodities, traders relied on salaries for the economy to be active. We had to consistently inject N2.6 billion for salaries of workers every month and that money circulated around markets. The money was what was going in circles from markets to the transport system, to the banking sector and to payment of other services. It was the salaries that held Borno’s local economy because nothing was happening before 2015, our exporters couldn’t go anywhere, whatever our traders brought in could only be bought when money circulated and salaries ensured that circulation” the Governor said.

    He explained that there instances the State tops as much as N700 million on federal revenue of N1.9b to pay salaries. He promised that the Government will sustain the salaries especially with the ongoing biometric exercise that is designed to eliminate ghost workers and cut down Government salary bill of N2.6b to something lower.

  • Governor pleads with striking workers

    Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has urged the state’s striking workers to join hands with him to find ”a lasting solution” to the challenge confronting the state.

    He urged them to return to work in the interest of the people.

    Mimiko, who spoke yesterday at the Father’s Day celebration service at the Government House Chapel in Akure, the state capital, said the country and the state were passing through a trying time.

    The governor appealed to the people not to give up, but “confront our challenges by reaching out to the depth of our creativity and say how do we move forward”.

    Expressing sympathy with the people over the harsh economic climate, Mimiko said his ”heart goes to families that are finding it difficult to feed; families where their children are ill and there is nothing in their pockets to seek medical help, those women that go into labour pain at  night and there is nowhere to seek help; my heart goes to everybody that suffers in this land”.

    He implored the workers to continue to pray because “after this darkness,a glorious dawn shall  come.

    Mimiko said the situation at hand did not call for a blame game, stating that “for us, it should not be about excuse giving or blame game, but about how we can confront this monster and reach for our creativity to solve this problem”.

  • Governor lauds Life In My City trustees

    Governor lauds Life In My City trustees

    Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has expressed delight at the activities of the Life In My City Festival (LIMCAF), a private initiative that promotes creativity among Nigerian youths. The Governor, who hosted members of the Board of Trustees of the festival at his Lion House office in Enugu, urged the board to keep him informed about the progress of their preparations for this year’s special anniversary edition which will end on October 29.

    The  courtesy call was led by the board Chairman Elder K. U. Kalu, a former Chairman of Union Bank and Managing Director Skoup,  accompanied by Chief Loretta Aniagolu a member of the Governor’s Economic Advisory Team and Principal Partner, FIT Consult, Chairman of the State Council for Arts and Culture, Dr. Obiora Anidi; a Chief Lecturer and Head, Department of Graphic Design IMT and Art Director of the Festival, Mr. Ayo Adewunmi, CEO Artsaels Ltd Mr. Tayo Adenaike, Mr Chuka Orji son and representative of the Founder of Life In My City, Chief Robert Orji and Mr Kevin Ejiofor, a former Director-General FRCN and Executive Director of the Festival.

    The trustees briefed the governor about the aims, objectives and vision of the festival which is not just a youth empowerment project but also a burgeoning national and international art and culture tourism destination and therefore a future source of significant contribution to the GDP of Enugu State and Nigeria.

    In a presentation, Mr. Kevin Ejiofor explained that this year’s edition would be the 10th anniversary of the Festival at which past winners and donors and other specially invited prominent guests were expected.

    He spoke on past winners of the festival’s overall prize who are now significantly advancing their careers in various ways. Such winners he said, included Mr. Olamide Oresegun the Festival’s first overall winner in 2007 as a student at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos and Ngozi Omeje now a Phd student at the University of Nigeria who also later won the Nigerian Breweries National Art Competition.

    Mr. Ejiofor disclosed that LIMCAF was now seeking a working partnership with the Institute of Management and Technology Enugu to become the intellectual home of the festival as it now seeks to deepen and broaden its impact in contemporary art in the Nigerian and international art world.

    “Enugu State young artists have won the overall prize at four of the nine editions of the Festival so far,” he added.

    According to Ejiofor, the festival has hosted some high profile art personalities in its panels of judges including professors of art in premier institutions in Nigeria and Africa, internationally renowned gallery operators, contemporary art scholars and promoters, high profile studio artists such as Jerry Buhari, Chike Aniakor, Kunle Filani, Bisi Silva, Frank Ugiomoh, Ayo Aina, Muhammed Muazu, Tony Okpe, Obiora Anidi, Nsikka Essien and Jacob Jari.

    “There have also been academic papers and other such contributions during some of the earlier editions of the festival by highly learned academics including Pita Ejiofor, Ola Oloidi, Chike Aniakor and Kryzd Ikwuemesi, with external support from Obiora Udechukwu, Mor Faye (Senegal) and Akwele Suma-Glory (Ghana) among others.

    “The Photo Africa contest for young African photo artists under 35 years of age was added to the festival’s portfolio in 2012 and has since attracted entries from not less than 18 African countries with jurors drawn from Nigeria, South Africa, Australia including such renowned photography experts as Tam Fiofori, Timipre Amah, James Iroha, Emeka Egwuibe, Piere Duffour (France), Margie MacClelland (Australia), and John Fleetwood (South Africa),” he said.

    He noted that the most interesting development in recent years is the endowment of prizes by prominent families, individuals and institutions including the Justice Anthony Aniagolu prize, the Pius Okigbo Prize, the Centre for Contemporary Art prize, the Mfon Usoro Prize, and the Thought Pyramid Art Gallery Prize among others.

  • Odubu: Edo needs a ready governor, not one with potential

    Odubu: Edo needs a ready governor, not one with potential

    Edo State Deputy governor and governorship aspirant on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Pius Odubu, has said the state needs a man who is ready to be governor in all aspects and not someone with mere potential.

    Odubu spoke at the weekend at a reception organised for him in Benin, the state capital, by his supporters, on his return from screening in Abuja.

    The deputy governor noted that being a student of Oshiomhole’s school of governance in the last seven years, he was the right man for the job.

    He urged the delegates not to be coerced into voting against their preferred candidate, adding that they must freely choose who to govern them.

    Odubu said: “I have been in school; I have been in Oshiomhole’s school of governance and he has rated me as the best.

    “We need a governor who will hit the ground running. We need a governor who is game-ready and not one with potential.

    “We will bring to bear all the governor has thought us and those we know on our own. We will do the greatest good to the greatest number of the people within the shortest possible time when we get there.

    “By His grace, I know and I believe that I am the man who will take over from the governor.”

    Following the purported allegation of massive buying of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) by a particular aspirant, Odubu urged said delegates must protect their PVCs, which he said is their property.

    He said: “My good people of Edo State, I hear they are collecting PVCs. Please, your PVC is your property. It is your right, don’t sell it; don’t mortgage your future.

    “You have to freely choose the man or woman who you want. You must, on your own free volition, choose who will govern Edo State. I want to assure you: all through the years, I have prepared myself for this occasion. I have prepared myself for now.”

    Apparently surprised by the reception and the crowd that greeted him, Odubu said: “I am completely short of words to attest my gratitude to this multitude of people.

    “Your solidarity and support, all through these years, show that we have a common goal, a common purpose. That is to deliver the deliverable to the greatest number in the shortest possible time.

    “These past few months, we have been through a lot together. I see a group of people that is dedicated, committed, dogged, in the support for a common son, like me. Let me assure you that we will not disappoint you.

    “There will be many things yet to happen. From the beginning, I told my people that the battle is neither for the brave nor the race for the swift. It is for those who endure.

    “We have endured a lot to get here. We are counting down now. We have a few days to go. I am just coming in from Abuja. We have been given a clean bill of health by the national party to contest this election.

    “I want to beg all of you: let us go to the stadium peacefully that day and exercise our franchise. Nobody can stop you.

    “Today, let them listen; let those who have ears hear. Let them hear that nobody can stop the sun from rising.

    “I believe and I do believe that by God’s grace, we shall overcome. Nobody can stop any man whose time has come. Our time has come. We are looking up to God; no man is God. We have a God, a God of justice. God has the final say.”

    APC has fixed June 18 for its primary while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has scheduled its for June 20.

  • Score injured as Drivers’ Union clash in Ondo

    Members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) and the rival National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Ondo state are in conflict over the control of motor parks in the state, especially Akure, the state capital.

    No fewer than 10 members of the association were on wednesday evening said to havesustained serious injuries during the clash  at their motor park along Oba Adesida road, Akure.

    It was also gathered that properties belonging to the association and some personal belongings were destroyed during the clash.

    The state chairman of RTEAN, Mr. Williams Adepoju alleged that the state Commissioner for Transport Mr Nicholas Tofowomo led some thugs to the motor parks to foment trouble.

    He said the Commissioner has not hidden his hatred for the RTEAN and was always seeking ways to frustrate members of the RTEAN in the state.

    He explained that “on the fateful day the commissioner led some leaders of the state branch NURTW and some suspected thugs to some parks on Adesida road and allegedly ordered them (thugs) to be destroying the vehicles that belong to RTEAN members only.”

    He said “last Friday we wrote to the security agents and the state government that NURTW wanted to attack us but they did not do anything to it, what we saw on Tuesday night was that Tofowomo came to our parks in Akure and Ondo at about 11pm in company of some NURTW leaders in the state and thugs. He said we don’t have the right to be operating in the town.”

    “It was in his presence that the NURTW thugs started matcheting our members and destroying their vehicles but we are law abiding people and we don’t want to fight back, that is why we are calling on the state Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko to call Tofowomo to order. He should allow us to operate because there is  freedom of association in Nigeria and our members have the choice under the law not to join the NURTW.”

    The commissioner could not be reached on phone and was not also in his office.

    However, the state chairman of NURTW, Mr. Ariyo Adetula denied the allegation, saying his members were not behind the attack againstmembers of the RTEAN.

  • Confusion as three pensioners collapse in Bayelsa

    Confusion as three pensioners collapse in Bayelsa

    ‎There was pandemonium at the Samson Siasia Stadium, yesterday, following the slumping of three old pensioners who came to participate in a pension verification exercise ordered by the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson.

    It was learnt that the affected pensioners were immediately rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.

    Prior to the incident, the pensioners who had not been paid many arrears, were said to have complained of stress, hunger and dehydration.

    The inclement weather occasioned by heavy downpour reportedly contributed in exacerbating the hardship of the pensioners during the exercise.

    The exercise which started on Monday was initiated by the state government to get the actual figure of the pensioners.

    But the retirees complained that the exercise had many hiccups and urged the government to find a lasting solution to their plight.

    One of them, Mr. Daniel Ogobugha, said he was not happy with the method adopted for the verification adding that the government would have combined the payment of the arrears with the exercise.

    He said: “Yes, we have been here since morning, many of our people have fainted, some critical ones have been rushed to the hospital; the government is helping but this exercise is very stressful to us.

    “Most of us are aged, some can no longer walk but look at us here for verification; well, if it is the way to fish out fake pensioners, is okay but I must tell you that this is not good due the health of some of us.

    “Some of us are being owed for over six months, we can’t pay our children school fees, with the current harsh economy, feeding have been a huge challenge to some families”.

    Another retiree, Mr Richard Epiri, urged the state government to expedite action in paying the backlog of their pensions.

    Confirming the development,the Chairperson, Bayelsa Pension Board, (BPB) Mrs. Jane Aleke, said the the pensioners collapsed because of exhaustion.

    He confirmed that the affected persons were rushed to the Government House Clinic.

    Aleke said that the exercise was not aimed at stressing the retirees but to enable the government get actual figure of pensioners.

    She appealed to the retirees to be calm and promised that every pensioners in the state would be captured in the exercise.

    “This is about management of wealth and you know in paying them, the state government cannot just begin to pay with a gauss number, so, we cannot do gauss work.

    “We are ready to reach all the Local governments in the state, we have started with Yenagoa; for those of them, who are sick and cannot walk, we will definitely go to their house,” she said.