Retirees OF Imo Newspapers under the aegis of the National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Products Workers, NUPPPPROW, Wednesday staged a peaceful protest to demand payment of their terminal benefits.

Imo Newspapers are the publishers of The Statesman.

Executive members of the union led by Adolphus Ike, who visited the secretariat of the Imo State Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, lamented that they were yet to receive their terminal benefits since they retired between two to ten years ago.

“Imo Newspapers is not pensionable. What happens is that if one retires his end of service severance benefits are paid to him once and for all. The affected senior citizens of Imo State have suffered untold hardship resulting to the death of six of them. Some of the retirees are currently sick, bed-ridden and unable to access medical treatment, due to lack of funds,” Ike said.

He alleged that other administrations had respected the policy and paid some of the retirees but the present administration had yet to do same, in spite of appeals.

The spokesman said the group had no other option than to embark on a peaceful demonstration at the expiration of the seven days grace period, from the day the protest letter was submitted to the state government.

“NUPPPROW regrets that various letters and entreaties made to the government by the affected retirees regarding the unpaid entitlements have failed to attract government’s attention,” the union said.

Ike noted that the Imo Broadcasting Corporation, IBC, retirees who had similar issues have been taken care of according to a recent pronouncement by government while they remained neglected.

The state government led by Governor Rochas Okorocha is yet to react to these accusations.