The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in Benue State on Monday resolved to shut down the state to protest against the non-payment of their
accumulated months of unpaid arrears and gratuities.
In a 14-day ultimatum to Governor Hyacinth Alia, they are threatening a two-day peaceful protest over arrears, gratuities and non-harmonisation of pensions in the state.
According to the elder statesmen, Governor Alia’s administration owes them 96 months for local government pensioners and 42 months for state pensioners.
The pensioners said they had written several times to the governor to address their plights, but he kept his lips sealed, adding that his silence was the cause of their next line of action.
They said they had resolved in one of their meetings in Makurdi that “if at the end of December 2025, the payments of the arrears and gratuities as well as the harmonisation are not done, the whole pensioners in Benue State, including those in the 23 Local Governments of the State, should be mobilised to Makurdi for a day of peaceful protest”.
The State Chairman of the union, Michael Vembe and the Secretary, Saater Bur Nyamgen, in a statement, lamented the continued non-payment of pension arrears and gratuities inherited from past administrations.
They further alleged discrimination in the payment of five months’ pension arrears earlier approved by the governor, noting that while state pensioners benefited from the payments between November 2024 and December 2025, local government pensioners were excluded.
The union also faulted the Benue State Government for failing to harmonise pensions to the N32,000 minimum pension in line with a federal directive and the N70,000 Minimum Wage Act of 2024, which has already been implemented for serving civil servants in the state.
According to the NUP, the failure to implement pension harmonisation has worsened the plight of retirees, with some pensioners reportedly earning as low as N2,000 monthly, while some retired permanent secretaries receive about N7,000, compared to over N300,000 earned by recently retired counterparts.
The pensioners warned that if their demands were not met by January 21, 2026, they would mobilise retirees from the 23 local government areas of the state for a peaceful protest on January 22 and 23, 2026.
The union noted that the planned protest will take place at the Benue State Pension Commission, the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, and the Government House in Makurdi.
They said that copies of the letter had already been sent to key government officials, security agencies and labour leaders in the state for information and necessary action.
