Pensioners: Bayelsa warns against sponsored protests, says it’s committed to payment

The Bayelsa State Government has frowned against frequent recourse to protests by various aggrieved groups, but expressed commitment to the welfare of pensioners in the state.
A statement on Monday by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said government and representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and other stakeholders have been meeting on the issue of arrears owed pensioners in the State.
According to him, the state places very high premium on the payment of pensioners and was doing that diligently, until the sharp drop in the monthly revenues accruing to the State from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.
Iworiso-Markson said despite the significant drop in revenue, a committee of senior citizens in Bayelsan State, has been set up to proffer lasting solution to the problem of pensioners.
He advised pensioners not to allow themselves to be used by persons, who do not mean well for them, stressing that, the Government is always open for dialogue with aggrieved groups, no matter the magnitude of the problem at stake.
The Bayelsa State Government also condemned in strong terms, rumours that the State Government has hired thugs to disrupt and beat up a group of pensioners, who embarked on a peaceful protest to the Government House, Yenagoa.
Describing the report as totally false and baseless, Iworiso-Markson stated that, the report was not only a mischievous figment of the imagination of the writer that was intended to smear the rising profile of Governor Dickson.
He also blamed the latest protests on some misguided politicians, who were bent on “rubbishing the laudable achievements of the Governor for what is clearly their selfish aims.”
The government, he said, will not give in to cheap blackmail, no matter the persons that are involved.