Hundreds of pensioners of Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, yesterday, besieged the gates of the oil giants in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital in protest of what they described as ill-treatment by a company they put in years of labour to build.

The pensioners, who carried placards and chanted solidarity songs blocked the entrance of the company, preventing vehicular movement in and out of the company for over two hours.

Some of the placards read: “Why Suffer the Geese That Laid The Golden egg”, “Stop Killing Pension Fund And Stop Killing Pensioners Now”, “Pay 6 years pension increase arrears now”, “NNPC Note: Agip (Eni) is flooding the company with Italians”, “General Manager ‘District’ Must Go”, “NAOC Pensioners Are Dying In Hundreds Due to NAOC’s Ill-Treatment”, Phillips ‘66’ Must return, Eni Must Go Back To Milan.”

Addressing newsmen, the NAOC branch Public Relations Officer, PRO, Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Elder Belonwu Geoffrey, said they decided to stage the protest since all efforts to get management to a round table has proved abortive.

“We are demonstrating because the company has dealt with us and so many of us are dying and they don’t even care whether we are dying. For the past six years they have not even touched our pension to increase it but they have been increasing their own salaries.

“We have not done this before but we had no choice and if they don’t address these issues we are going to continue. We have written them severally, we went to management; they threw our letters into the dust bin. We mandated the Oil Industry Consultative Association of Pensioners, which consist of Shell, Total, Mobil, Chevron and Agip. They wrote them, management did not reply as I am talking to you now’’.

Also, the Vice Chairman of the union, Prince Stanley Obi Osalukwue, expressed sadness over the plights of the pensioners.

Drama started when the General Manager, sent a delegate to the leadership of the protesters demanding an audience with them at the conference hall of the company on the grounds that he does not want to be caught in cameras.

The PRO, who later spoke with Nigerian Pilot said management has fixed a meeting for next week with the pensioners and directed them to pick up their new ID cards.