Pensioners decry omission from National Conference

The Nigeria Union of Pensioners has written a letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Anyim Pius Anyim decrying their non inclusion amongst delegates for the National Conference starting a week from today.The President of the NUP DR. Abel O. Afolayan in a letter to the SGF written on March 7, 2014 […]

The Nigeria Union of Pensioners has written a letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Anyim Pius Anyim decrying their non inclusion amongst delegates for the National Conference starting a week from today.
The President of the NUP DR. Abel O. Afolayan in a letter to the SGF written on March 7, 2014 which he said he wrote on behalf of over one million pensioners in Nigeria noted that an unauthorised group has usurped the spots reserved for his members.
He said as the only union registered and approved by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity for Nigerian civil pensioners/retirees, it was expected that NUP rather than the association of retired federal permanent secretaries should nominate delegates to the conference.
“But to our greatest dismay, we discovered that the union was sidelined by Council of Retired Permanent Secretaries (CORFEPS) which have nominated the six delegates to represent the entire retirees across the nation.
“It is our conviction that our union should have been consulted over this matter because we are the major stakeholders representing the interest of the entire Civil Service retirees/pensioners.
“Ironically, other related retirees’ associations such as the military, the police, state security service, were all given slots to represent the interests of their members with the exception of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners,” he said.
Afolayan regretted that his presence at the office of SGF on the 5th of March, 2014 to protest the development was rebuffed by the Permanent Secretary (Special Duties) in the office, saying that pensioners would organise mass protest all over Nigeria, if their grouse is not addressed.
The letter was copied to the Head of Civil Service of the Federation Alhaji Goni Aji and the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Abdulwahed Omar.