FMBN pensioners threaten showdown over unpaid arrears

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Retirees of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Lagos State zone, have threatened a showdown with the bank’s management over unpaid five years pension arrears.

The pensioners lamented the sad development, saying they had been subjected to misery, despair and anguish.

They also said they lost 23 of their members last year due to frustration and trauma arising from psychological damage.

They have therefore given the FMBN management a seven-day ultimatum to pay them their balance of 80 per cent arrears which they put in the region of N600m.

The pensioners vowed to ‘occupy’ the FMBN headquarters in Abuja if the relevant authorities failed to pay them after the expiration of the ultimatum on Tuesday.

At a meeting attended by their National President, Chief Ladipo Ani, the pensioners accused the bank’s management of insensitivity to their plight.

The Chairman, Lagos Zone, FMBN Pensioners, Mr. Joseph Sekoni, told PUNCH Metro that apart from 20 per cent they were paid in 2011, the management had reneged on its promise to pay the arrears.

Sekoni said, “Since 2006, we have been holding a series of meetings over our unpaid arrears. The FMBN approved salary increase for workers and according to various establishment laws, similar increase should be applied to us.

“In 2010, they ordered verification. After the exercise, we and the management came to a consensus on the figures to pay to individual pensioners. But the current managing director said the documents we were carrying about were not approved by anybody and that there would be another verification.

“Then on February 26, 2011, the current MD held another meeting with us. After the meeting in April 2011, they paid us 20 per cent of the arrears and they promised to pay the balance of 80 per cent soon.”

Sekoni said to their surprise, they saw report in a national daily (not The PUNCH) that FMBN said it was ready to pay them a certain amount of money far below what they owed them.

“What the management is now saying is that they do not have money. As for us, such a story should be told to the marines. In fact, they do not have the right to tell us that because we are aware that the money is ready and that some people are sitting on it.

“It is not tenable especially when the average take-home pension of some pensioners after 20 years is a paltry N1,000.”

But Ani appealed for calm, saying the national body would get inputs from other zones to know the next line of action after the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum.

On speculation by some pensioners that the leadership had been compromised, Ani assured them that they would not be disappointed.

But the Executive Director, Finance and Administration, FMBN, Mr. Mike Nwogbo, told our correspondent on the telephone on Wednesday that the bank had been responsive to the yearnings of the pensioners.

He said after paying the pensioners about N145m, the balance left was about N218m. He wondered where the pensioners got their N600m figure from.

Nwogbo said, “I can tell you authoritatively that we do not have any issue with the pensioners. They are still being owed and we have worked out modes of payment which all of them are aware of.

“We have been having meetings with the national leadership. Their national president can give you up-to-date report on the situation.

“This management has not done the pensioners bad. After paying them 25 per cent last time, we increased their monthly pensions by 25 per cent. It is on record. We are not saying we are not going to pay them their balance; we will pay them as agreed.”

Culled  from The Punch.

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Simply Cheska...