By Nahum Sule (Taraba State Correspondent, in Jalingo)
Angry pensioners in Taraba State, under the aegis of Taraba state concern retiree, have protested the alleged non-payment of their gratuities by the state government for 7 years, saying Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku administration has no visible projects to point at despite holding their entitlement.
The protesting pensioners who marched to the state House of Assembly Complex in Jalingo, lamented what they viewed as the insensitivity of governor Ishaku administration to their plight despite collecting a lot of loans from different institutions, federal government bailout and the Paris club refund.
While demanding for their entitlements, Comr. Silas Jafta, the state pensioners chairman on behalf of the retirees also demanded for accountability into all the debt collected by the governor since 2015 to save the future of the state.
"We are out again to protest for our rights. We want governor Ishaku to be sensitive and pay us our retirement benefits. The governor has collected a lot of loans including bailout and Paris club refund. He has no project to point at as to what he has used the monies for. He keep borrowing and Taraba state is gradually becoming the most indebted state in Nigeria but our entitlement are still not considered after retiring for over ten years.
"While we demand that the N5.5bn loan that was approved last week Wednesday for rural roads completion should be used to begin payment of our entitlements. We also demand immediate investigation into all the monies collected by the governor since he has no reasonable project on ground to point at", they demanded.
Meanwhile, the speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly, Prof. Joseph Albasu Kunini, refused to attend to the protesting pensioners after waiting for over four hours at the assembly's gate.
Reacting to the N5.5bn loan approved by the State Assembly, both senator Danlami Ikenya and Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, both governorship candidates of the Labour Party (LP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, have kicked against the decision of the State House of Assembly.
They challenged that the governor lacked the capacity to pay back N5.5bn in the next seven months of his administration and should not add more debt to the ones he has already incurred for the state.
"No serious commercial bank would give such loans to an administration that is about leaving office in the next few months without the capacity to pay back. The money being borrowed is not for any meaningful project but to be embezzled. What kind of project is the government ready to do in the remaining seven months? For some of us, we believe any commercial bank that is giving such funds is doing it at it's own risk", the pensioners said. NNL.
