The pathetic living condition of pensioners in Taraba State has become a source of concern for close watchers of the situation.
The senior citizens, who over the years have endured their pitiable predicament, are beginning to lose patience, claiming that the state government seems to be paying lip service to their plight.
This may have forced them into street protests about three times in the last six months.
The protest in July had the pensioners and some of their family members converging at the gate of the Taraba government house, to show their frustration over their unpaid benefits.
After waiting in vain for the government to address their plight, the pensioners under the aegis of Taraba State Concerned Retirees, a few days ago stormed the state House of Assembly, urging the lawmakers to prevail on the government to pay their benefits to save them from untimely death and suffering.
In a letter, delivered to the Speaker of the Assembly, Prof. Albasu Kunin, they decried their woes including the inability to send their children to school for lack of funds.
The letter signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the group, Silas Jafta, and Yohanna Ajiya, among others, reads: ”We request your humble office to intervene concerning the non-payment of Gratuities for State and Local Government Retirees and Pension for Local Government Staff Retirees.
“Speaker, you may wish to know that many Local Government Staff retired for over 8-10 years now without being paid Pensions. This non-payment of Gratuities and Pensions of Local Government Staff has caused us very high hardship to us. Children were sent out of School, and some died, sick without money for treatment.
“Speaker, please use your office to table the matter to the House for discussion. We tried all we could to persuade the Governor to pay, but he paid deaf ears to our plea and since you people are representing us, we feel to table the matter to you for a solution.”
Recall that in a letter to Governor Darius Ishaku by the Dialogue Committee of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP dated March 23, 2022, they highlighted their demands to include, “Payment of Gratuity, Enrolment of Local Government Retirees into the pension scheme, Implementation of Approved 33 percent Pension increase for retirees, Prompt payment of monthly pension among others.
Seven months down the line, it seems there is no green light and the pensioners are already losing patience.
Currently, there are three separate groups of pensioners in the state and they are, Retired Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Service, Taraba State Concerned Retirees, and the Nigeria Union of Pensioners.
Speaking, Secretary of the Dialogue Committee, who also doubles as the state Public Relations Officer, PRO of the NUP, Yusuf Sansani, among others, said “Backlog of gratuity is estimated at N40 billion because gratuity was last paid to those who retired in 2010 for 12 good years no gratuity. At the moment there are over 1000 Local Government, LG, retirees who left service between 1 and 10 years that are not enrolled for pension. This set is the worst hit, suffering from various ailments, untimely death, and they cannot fend for their families. People retire daily and the number of retirees is on the increase. Payment of pension is also epileptic.
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