‘1600 Kwara pensioners die over unpaid allowances’

The Kwara Local Government Pensioners Association on Wednesday said it had lost over 1600 members between April, 2015 to date following unpaid pension allowances of over six months. The chairman of the association in the state, Alhaji lsiaka Akanbi disclosed this in llorin while speaking with our correspondent. He lamented that several of its members […]

The Kwara Local Government Pensioners Association on Wednesday said it had lost over 1600 members between April, 2015 to date following unpaid pension allowances of over six months.
The chairman of the association in the state, Alhaji lsiaka Akanbi disclosed this in llorin while speaking with our correspondent.
He lamented that several of its members across the 16 local government areas of the state died following their inability to get better treatment.
The chairman of the association lamented further that over 3000 of its members are currently unable to buy drugs for various ailments affecting  them due to the unpaid allowances .
Akanbi urged Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed to come to their aid and pay the over six months pension allowance owed its members.
He said, “We have suffered unprecedented discrimination since the coming of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed as the governor. We are the elderly people called Senior Citizens who deserve fair treatment. The number of our members who have died as a result of discrimination by the Kwara State government is the greatest in comparison to any other sector in the state,”  Akanbi added.
The chairman further  appealed to the state government to use the fund acquired from ghost workers detected from its recent workers verification exercise  to settle arrears of pension allowance to local government pensioners.
In his reaction, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication to Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed, Dr Muideen Akorede said the state government sympathised with pensioners over their plight.
He attributed their plight to drop in allocation to all the 16 local government councils in the state, adding that the government is looking for ways to come to their aid within its available resources.