Abia retirees celebrate pension payment in church

Members of the Concerned Abia Pensioners on Sunday held a thanksgiving service in church to celebrate payment of the backlog of their pensions owed by the previous administration.

The thanksgiving which was held at The Apostolic Church Nigeria, No. 55, Awolowo Street, Umuahia, was led by the chairman of Concerned Abia Pensioners, John Kalu. The purpose of the thanksgiving, according to the retirees, was to appreciate God and thank many churches that prayed for God’s intervention during the years they were not paid their pensions.

John Kalu, 85, thanked the Abia State governor, Alex Otti, for fulfilling his campaign promise of defraying the arrears of the pensions owed them by the previous administration in the state, noting that the best place to celebrate the good news was in the church.

He said: “We had a very big problem. Our problem was that they did not pay us our pensions, our members were dying in thousands because of illness and no money to go to hospital, no money to eat. We started to pray, we were fasting and praying. We went to churches for them to help us in prayers. The Apostolic Church was one of the churches we went to.

“So, this time, the Governor has given us what we wanted. He has paid us the arrears of pensions which the other government didn’t pay us, which we were crying for, he has paid it to us. We are grateful. That is why we said we should go back to The Apostolic Church to tell them that God has done what we requested.”

Receiving the pensioners in the church, the Pastor in-charge and Area Superintendent of The Apostolic Church Nigeria, Umuahia Area, Apostle Bernard Ugbor commended the pensioners for remembering to come to give thanks to God.

He appreciated the governor for having the senior citizens in his heart and described him as a good leader.