Over 100 Hired Thugs Attacks And Injured Protesting Pensioners In Yenagoa

Many of the protesting pensioners were injured in the attack Pensioners in Bayelsa state would not forget in a jiffy the trauma caused them on February 29, following an attack from suspected hired thugs.

Pensioners who are owed five months pension arrears stormed the government house in Yenagoa to protest against the alleged refusal of the state government to pay their money,

but were beating up by hired thugs. The hired thugs lay ambush at the gate of the state government house where they attacked the elderly men with dangerous objects. Scores of the protesting pensioners were injured in the attack with one of them currently in a critical state at an undisclosed hospital in the metropolis.

It was gathered that newsmen were also at risk as a correspondent with the Guardian, Julius Osahon, was almost beaten up by the thugs for taking pictures of the incident.

The leadership of the State National Union of Pensioners (NUP) through the caretaker committee chairman, Elder Bodi Amarah, said the assailants were made up of youths between the ages of 17 and 24. Amarah explained that the pensioners came out peacefully to demand for their five months pension arrears and two years unpaid gratuity, when no fewer than 100 thugs pounced on them.

 “We came here to demand for our five months arrears. We have made efforts to claim this money. We went to all the stakeholders in the government, nobody listened to us. We went to Seipulou (SA Treasury), he didn’t listen us, we went to Ongolo, chief of staff, he did not listen to us.

So we decided to come to Government House to hear from Governor Dickson why this is happening to us. “We only came as senior citizens to see government since all means of dialogue have failed. We came to tell him our pains but to our surprise, he hired hoodlums, cult boys to come and beat us up. Look at my shirt, it is covered with blood, one of us is now seriously injured and he has been rushed to the hospital,” he said. The chairman who disclosed that the leadership of the pensioners have made several efforts to see Governor Seriake Dickson, said: 

“the efforts have yielded no result as the governor has refused to pay them. The pensioners were angered that government paid all other workers their arrears up to December last year but failed to pay even a month of their five months outstanding arrears.

” Speaking also, a pensioner who gave his name as Mr Phillips Didi, said: “We are pensioners who have served this state and this country meritoriously for 35 years, only to be beaten up by thugs hired by a state government. Pension is a right; it is not a privilege that we are asking him to pay us. Look at what they have done.’’ 

The state government could not be reached for comment as at press time. In a related development, a 75-year-old pensioner, Sunday Oboite collapsed and died on February 23, while waiting on qu‎eue to be screened at the Oredo local council secretariat in Benin city, Edo state capital.