The Zamfara state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners has told the State Governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari that over 60 members of the union have lost their lives due to frustration, hunger and starvation.
In DAILY POST interview with the chairman, comrade Hassan Mohammed, he noted that for several years now, most of the people who retired from service have not been paid their gratuity due to some lapses from the state government.
The chairman wondered why the Governor has refused to pay their gratuity even when the President had realised funds to cover the arrears of pensioners in the state.
“We would no longer keep quite because our people are dying on daily basis, wondering whether the president does not care to notice all the press conferences from the Union in the state.
” We are tired of begging Governor Abdulaziz Yari for him to pay us all our entitlement but he has been treating the issue with a mere wave of hand, ” he lamented.
He showed DAILY POST a number of pensioners lying down in the Secretariat believing that their gratuity was with the union.
According to him, on a daily basis, there are news of pensioners dying and the state government does not care, only to make unnecessary noise that he would settle all the outstanding arrears before he leaves office on May 29 this year.
It could be recalled that recently, the Governor had assured the state chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress that he must settle all the pensioners’ gratuity and entitlements before he leaves office on May 29.
DAILY POST made its findings if the pensioners have been paid but they said they have not got any information about payment, let alone collecting their gratuity.
The chairman wondered why they could serve their fatherland for thirty-five years only to be paid back with injustice which he described inhumane.
