Ojukwu varsity retirees protest backlog of pensions, gratuities

About 100 retirees of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University(COOU) Uli, Anambra State, yesterday, staged a protest against the failure of the university management to pay their pensions, gratuities and other entitlements more than 10 years after they retired from service.

The protesters, whose ages ranged between 70 and 85, stormed the Igbariam campus of the university, carrying placards with different inscriptions depicting their anger.

Some of the inscriptions read:”Pay us for job well done. Many of us have died,””Government pay us, save our lives; we have dependants,” “Life is hard without money, please, we need our entitlements,” “Do we not deserve our dues, or do you want to pay our dead bodies?”

Leader of the group, Chief Emenike Frank, said most of them started work with the institution since 1996, when it was known as  Anambra State Polytechnic, before it converted to a university.

“Most of us retired in 2010, some retired earlier, but since then, we have not received our entitlements as pensions and gratuities. About seven of our colleagues have died. Since we started this agitation, but government and the school management have not addressed our anxieties. We have written several letters to that effect, but we got no response.