Abia pensioners hold thanksgiving service, hail Otti
Concerned Abia Pensioners organized a Thanksgiving ceremony to express gratitude to God for hearing their prayers and compelling Governor Alex Otti to give them the pension arrears that previous Abia State governments had failed to pay.
Elder John Kalu, the chairman of Concerned Abia Pensioners, spoke during an interview held during the Thanksgiving service at The Apostolic Church Nigeria, No. 55 Awolowo Street, Umuahia. He said that during the years that pension payments had not been made, the group had visited numerous churches and written letters to them requesting prayers on their behalf.
He stated that in order to give gratitude to God, they felt it appropriate to visit one of the churches that had prayed for them during their suffering.
Elder Kalu, 85, expressed gratitude to Dr. Otti, the governor of Abia State, for honoring his pledge during the campaign to pay the pension arrears that previous Abia State governments had neglected to pay them.
“We had a very big problem,” he stated. Our issue was that they were not paying us our pensions, which meant that hundreds of our members were passing out from disease and starvation without the means to visit a hospital. We began to fast and pray as we got started.
We visited churches, including the Apostolic Church, in order to receive assistance from them in our prayers.
Thus, the governor has granted us our request this time. We were pleading with him to pay the pension arrears that the previous administrations had failed to provide.
We are appreciative. For this reason, we stated that we ought to return to The Apostolic Church and inform them that God had granted our requests.
Otti visited the Abia State Pensioners as soon as he was on the campaign trail. He assured us that if we vote for him, he will settle our debts and begin providing us with monthly payments. He completed the task, which is why we are expressing our gratitude to him.
Additionally, before Governor Otti took office and paid them, Assistant Secretaries of Concerned Abia Pensioners, Mr. Okechukwu Ehisianya and Mrs. Mercy Ogbonna, claimed they went through hell and suffered while many of their members passed away and some were in poor health. They expressed their gratitude to Governor Otti for making them happy.
According to their allegations, the retirees’ lives have been revived as a result of the governor’s settlement of their arrears. As the governor led Abia closer to the promised land, they prayed for God’s blessing and best wishes.
Apostle Bernard Ugbor, the area superintendent of The Apostolic Church Nigeria, Umuahia Area, who was receiving the pensioners at the church, thanked them for remembering to come and express thanks to God.
He called the governor an excellent leader and expressed gratitude for his concern for the elderly.
“I thank God for our dynamic governor’s kind gesture of remembering these retirees,” he remarked. We are grateful that he has paid off the pension arrears, and we ask God to do more.
It is a sign of a godly leader that the governor has this group of individuals in mind. He is going to continue to be blessed by God. I’m confident that his administration will be the finest.
“These retirees carried out the scriptural account of the one leper who returned to thank God for His healing work among the ten. That’s precisely what they did, Jesus said, adding that he was not only cured but also made whole since he returned to thank him and the other nine had not shown up.
“I pray that God will grant these elderly people a long life and the ability to fulfill their earthly obligations before He calls them home.”
Remember that Otti, the governor of Abia State, just carried out his pledge made during the campaign to pay off all outstanding pension arrears for the state’s elderly residents.
Additionally, he promised that pensions for retirees will be paid on the same day as federal servants’ monthly salary going ahead.
