Foremost governorship aspirant in Delta state, Olorogun Barrister Kenneth Gbagi, has come in full defense of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa over the protest by some persons who claim to be retired teachers from the state civil service.
The protest was staged on Thursday in front of the state event centre during an empowerment programme organised by the state government.
Videos of the purported retired teachers protesting at the gate with police controlling them went viral on Thursday. Some reports claimed the governor allegedly escaped from the event centre.
However, Gbagi, a former minister of state for education, told this online medium that the governor did not escape as reported but it was an organised show by mischief makers, political detractors and enemies of the state.
Gbagi, a known stakeholder and respected entrepreneur and business mogul, said he had watched the event and it became imperative that he made some important clarifications.
Gbagi, being a stakeholder in the affairs of Delta, who is conversant with political machinations to score cheap political gains, noted that Governor Okowa can never feel comfortable going to bed denying any retiree of his pensions.
He said Okowa, who was brought up by a father who was a teacher cannot deny retired teachers their pension entitlements.
He revealed that when Governor Okowa took office in 2015, he met huge bills of unpaid pensions. He said Okowa made efforts to verify the authenticity of the figures, by setting up investigating committees to assess the payment due to pensioners.
According to the former education minister, the verification committee discovered very largely forged, fake and untrue figures of pensioners.
He said: “Upon the completion of that investigation, Dr. Okowa set about payment but classified the payment into two. One payment of backlog and figures that he met when he took over in 2015 and the other was pension due to workers after his assumption of office in 2015.
“Now, while payments that was accruable before his assumption of office as governor have been reduced to no less than 80 percent of verified and authenticated figures, in the 2nd batch which he started with as pensioners when he took over in 2015, there’s hardly any backlog because he has made effort to set aside funds to make those payments.”
He said social media users and people who do not want to face the truth will say many things due to perceived bias against the government in power, adding that “once you are in government, people will say many things about you but the fact has got to be told to our people.”
He noted that “On the date in question, contrary to misinformation, people planned social media information that never occurred. At no time was Okowa harassed or anybody close by miles to where he did the function and his departure from the scene of the event.
“We are all aware that those people who rented the buses are political detractors and opposition in politics. A good proportion of them are not even pensioners but thugs who were rented for the purpose of creating scenario as though there was upheaval in the state.
“It is painful that people can rent thugs and hooligans in the street to say they are pensioners. I align myself and I believe the governor even does better than I do that no
pensioner would be left without being attended to or a given pensioner not receiving his pension before the end of this administration in 2023.
“I want the general public to disregard in its totality the fake news that is making the round. We all do business, we know the biggest problem in Nigeria is fake, invisible/ghost workers and fake people.
“Even in our small businesses, we discover fake people who are not workers, some of who have died and they draw salaries from the establishment.
“The fact remains that Dr. Okowa has decided to save tax payers money not to pay hooligans, fraudsters, people who have never been teachers, people who are not qualified to take pension from the state government.
“I will plead that people who do not know this governor should please find out who he is. He is such a one with a godly heart. He can never ever do anything as is being ascribed to him.
“Politicians must remember that if you throw stones as you live in glass houses, it might fall on you. Deltans, I want to say that the governor will never take side with denial of teachers pension as his father was a teacher.”
Olorogun Gbagi called on all Deltans to discountenance what he termed as fake propaganda, saying the governor has judiciously managed the state resources for the good of all Deltans.
He told this online medium that blackmail will not help but Deltans should be sincere and support the government of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa.
He said there are three departments that handle pension matters in the state. He mentioned state bureau of pensions that gets at least one billion Naira monthly to service pensions, local government pensions board and the head of service with old pensioners.
According to him, not less than N2bn goes out monthly from the state government to service pensions. He said the previous administration did a total of N10bn pension fund but since the emergence of Okowa, he has done over N40bn.
“It is therefore wrong for us to heap all forms of attack on the governor. Most of these attacks are done through paid agents and thugs, people not in the pension scheme, all in an attempt to paint a bad impression about the administration,” Olorogun Gbagi said.
He added: “As I said and will continue to say if Okowa does anything wrong I will be one of the persons that will speak out against it. But this one is not true. The true pensioners have allowed hoodlums and people of questionable character sponsored by political enemies to infiltrate their midst.
“The State Pensions Board gets at least one billion Naira every month, local government pensions board and head of service also get theirs. All these are used to service pensions.
“This government has managed the meagre resources for the rescue of pensioners. Okowa will be the last person to toy with pension of teachers in the state. Let us search ourselves and remove criminals from our midst, negativity belongs to evil plotters, let’s dwell on facts and not on blackmail.
“Like they say “Truth needs no publicity other than itself and like a small stone thrown into a pond, its ripples will in time inevitably reach the circumstance. The only thing to consider is the solidity and the weight of the stone.
“This Contributory Pension Scheme is very expensive. Even Lagos state and the federal government are owing because of its complexity.”
NOTE: Attached photos show how the Empowerment programme was organised at the event centre
