The protesters came out with placards showing different inscriptions such as "gratuities are on sales to pensioners", "Governor Dapo Abiodun honour your father and treat Pensioners well" and "Governor Abiodun , we don't deserve this worst humiliation", among others.
The State Chairman of LOGPAN, Sikiru Ayilara while addressing newsmen accused Governor Dapo Abiodun of failing to keep his promises to the pensioners, lamenting that, some of them still earn paltry sum of N2,000, N5000 as monthly pension.
Ayilara described the quarterly payment of N500 million by the governor which according to him would take 34 years to clear all the gratuities as "a wicked act" which is unacceptable.
He called for the review of the policy by voting N1billion monthly instead of payment of N500m quarterly which they said would take 34 years to clear the outstanding.
It would be recalled that the state government and joint Labour Union Commitee of the Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) that the State government will pay N500 million naira quarterly to offset the outstanding gratuities and pensions.
Addressing the protesters, the Secretary to the Ogun State Government (SSG), Mr. Tokunbo Talabi maintained that, the current administration led by Governor Dapo Abiodun did not owe any gratuities.
Talabi explained that, the current administration has paid a whopping sum of N1billion in two tranches to clear outstanding gratuities by the current administration.
He noted that, the unpaid gratuities were owed by previous administrations.
"The meeting of today will further give us a better understanding of the issue. At the commencement of this administration, we had a robust dialogue with all stakeholders and I'm happy to say we are one of the first set of state to implement the minimum wage.
"The pensioners have basis for their agitation, but all we are saying let's ensure there's enough dialogue between all stakeholders.
"We have reached an understanding on the basis that, there were allegations that some people are paid underground. The state government is not aware of this and if we found anything like that, we will make amendment."
Talabi who was asked to speak on the numbers of pensioners paid so far, Mr. Talabi said, "I cannot tell specific numbers, but the process is on first occurrence basis, the intention is to start in two N500m, as time goes, we shall allocate a substantial part to increase." he submitted.
