Kwara retirees threaten boycott of 2019 polls over N50bn pension

Hundreds of pensioners in Kwara on Tuesday embarked on a peaceful protest in Ilorin, threatening to boycott the 2019 elections, if the state government fails to settle their over N50 billion unpaid pensions and gratuities.
The pensioners, including those from the 16 local government areas of the state and primary school teachers, carried placards of various inscriptions, demanding for the immediate settlement of their unpaid entitlements.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that they gathered in front of the state Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), located in the Commissioners’ Lodge Way, Government Reserved Area (GRA), Ilorin.
They defied the heavy rainfall, chanting anti-government songs to express their displeasure with the state government.
The retirees, mostly old women and physically-challenged, also displayed their permanent voter cards during the protest, vowing notto participate in the elections, unless the state government met their demands.
Saidu Oladimeji, the state chairman of NUP, said they resorted to protest as they could no longer endure the hardship.
Mr.
Oladimeji said the state government had since March 2014 stoppedthe payment of gratuities to retired workers, which he said, had increased the poverty level and led to untimely death of many pensioners.
He added that retirees from the local government areas had not been collecting gratuities since 2008 adding that: “They have been taking amputated pensions since 2008.” The chairman also accused the state government of non-implementation of the 20 per cent of the salary increase harmonization to workers that retired ahead of May 1, 2010 in the16 council areas and teachers under the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
“We are demanding the full payment of the mutilated monthly pensions to retirees from the local government areas which had entered 10 months now with negative impacts on the lives of the retired workers,’’ he said.
(NAN)

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