Pensioners of the Bayelsa State Civil Service have staged a protest beside the Government House in Yenagoa to express their displeasure with the five months non-payment of their pensions, salary arrears and gratuities.
Also protesting in the state capital were tricycle operators who say they are being over levied.
The streets of Yenagoa the capital of Bayelsa State is no longer bubbly as they used to be.
Just fresh out of elections with so many promises yet to be kept, the smiles on the faces of Bayelsans are fast disappearing, as civil servants in the state are yet to be paid their January salary.
In spite of the hardship this delay in the payment of their salaries had caused them and their families, they are still patient with the government they just elected into office.
But the pensioners seem to have run out of patience, as they took to the streets to protest the non-payment of their pensions for the past five months.
They had witnessed some resistance, as they claimed they were attacked by young boys as they approached the Government House gate.
They alleged that the boys tore their placards and even injured some of them.
While the pensioners protest, the tricycle operators in the state also expressed displeasure with what they called over-levy by the unions guarding their operations.
One of the tricycle operators, Mr Gene Abe, appealed to the Governor to keep his campaign promises to them.
During his campaign, Governor Seriake Dickson had assured them that when re-elected there would be only one unified levying system in the state.
Even though these protesters want their needs met, it would be difficult for the present administration in the state, as the Governor had few days ago announced that the allocation from the federal purse to the state was the lowest it had ever gotten.
