From: Okwe Obi, Abuja
A mild drama played out, on Thursday, in Abuja, as pensioners’ wives,
under the aegis of Nigeria Women in Action, converged on the Unity
Fountain, calling on the Federal Government to pay outstanding pension
arrears of their husbands.
The women, who carried placards with different inscriptions such as:
“All pension thieves must be probed”; “Please do not divert out
intention from N1.6tr to 2.1 billion”; “Nigerian women say NO to secret
probe of pension fund,” lampooned the slow pace of the investigation.
Convener of the group, Ebere Okafor, added that life had not been
the same, as their children could not go to school, eat good meal, and so forth.
She also stressed that: “They want our husbands to die, they steal our
money every day. Imagine, they are stealing N300m every day, N5.32 billion
every month and they say N3 trillion is hiding somewhere that belongs to our
husbands.
“Mr. President, we want the money. Our children are in school but no
school fees, some have dropped out because there is no money and we
want the N3 trillion to start businesses,” she added.
Okafor also alleged that members of the National Assembly were working
for the people who are stealing their husbands’ money.
“Let the ministry of Justice constitutes judges to handle the
investigation. More President Buhari should monitor the investigation
so that the money missing could be recovered for our husbands,” she
said.
Some members of the group said that they would not back down until their demands are met.