The Concerned Abia Pensioners have absolved Abia State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Aham Uko of any involvement in their arrest and detention by the Police in Umuahia during the weekend.
A section of the media had reported that the Abia Finance Commissioner, Dr Uko was behind the arrest of some pensioners who allegedly came to see him at his office Thursday.
But the report turned out to be a misleading one designed to deceive the Abia public into believing that Dr Uko is not what people think of him in government circles and beyond.
The Concerned Abia Pensioners represented by their leaders visited Flo FM Umuahia and told Abians that the Commissioner for Finance, Dr Uko was not privy to their arrest by the Police as reported.
Secretary of the group, Mr. Emeka Okezie and Kalu John who is also a top member of the union said they never visited or met with Uko as reported in the media.
According to pensioners, they said they applied to the Commissioner of Police for Police permission to enable them embark on peaceful protest like before, adding that they were however invited by the Police. “So when we got to the office of the commissioner of Police following the invitation we did not meet anybody and we were asked to make statement and from there we were taken to the Central Police Station Umuahia and detained”, they disclosed to Flo FM.
The leaders of the Concerned Abia Pensioners, said they never went to the office of Dr Uko or met with him as reported in the press, describing the report as misleading. They explained that they will not implicate the Abia Finance Commissioner because he knows nothing about their arrest by the Police.
The group appealed to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu whom they described as a good man to intervene in the plight of pensioners and ensure they are paid their backlog of pension arrears.
Mr Okezie said the concerned Abia Pensioners is an offshoot of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP, Abia state. He disclosed that they formed the group as a cooperative society after the NUP shut them out of its elections not before they have purchased the nomination forms.
