The Chairman, Kwara State Local
Government Pensioners Association, Mr. lsiaka Akanbi, on Saturday, said
no fewer than 1,005 of its members had died since April 2015, as a
result of unpaid pension allowances.
Akanbi, in an interview with our
correspondent in Ilorin, the state capital, said the victims, who cut
across the 16 local government councils of the state, died as a result
of their inability to get adequate health care attention.
Stakeholders in the state, while decrying the death of the pensioners, described the trend as sad and unacceptable.
Among them were the state factional
Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Sunday Fagbemi; a former
PDP governorship aspirant in the state, Mr. Sunday Babalola; and the
President, Afonja Descendants Union, Mr. Olola Kasum.
While urging relevant authorities to
urgently effect the payment of the pension arrears to the senior
citizens, Akanbi said no fewer than 3,000 of the pensioners were unable
to buy drugs for their ailments.
He pleaded with the Kwara State
Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, to come to their aid by ensuring the payment
of their pension arrears.
Akanbi said, “We have suffered
unprecedented discrimination since Ahmed came to power in the state. We
are senior citizens and deserve fair treatment.
“The number of our members who have died is the greatest in comparison with any other sector in the state.”
When contacted, Ahmed’s Senior Special
Assistant on Media and Communication, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, said the
governor was saddened by the plight of the local government pensioners.
He blamed the drop in Federation Account
allocations for the non-payment of the pensions, adding that the state
government was considering strategies to assist them within its
available resources.
Kasum also called on the President
Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to intervene and assist the
local governments to pay the arrears in order to curtail the spate of
untimely deaths in the state.
Meanwhile, the Benue State House of
Assembly says it has received over 220 petitions bordering on
non-payment of salaries as a result of the mismanagement of bailout.
It also said the N86m released to the
leadership of the assembly for the purchase of computers for the
biometric exercise in the state were never utilised, while insisting it
was not part of the functions of the House to carry out biometric
exercises.
The Chairman, Standing Committee on
Public Petitions, Bills Review and Appraisal, Kester Ikyenge, while
marking one year in office, during a constituency briefing at Anyiin,
Logo Local Government Area, on Saturday, stressed that the assembly had
no business embarking on an exercise for which it was not trained to
carry out, adding that not a single computer had been purchased.
Ikyenge told his constituents that his
office, which he claimed was in a dilapidated state, was daily inundated
with pensioners and local government staff over salaries and pension
matters.
According to him, over 220 petitions had been submitted to the House.
0 Comments