Stakeholder in the Kwara State Local Government Pensioners Association have decried the death of pensioners due to unpaid salaries, describing the trend as sad and unacceptable.
The stakeholders who spoke through the Chairman of the association, Mr. lsiaka Akanbi, said no fewer than 1,005 of its members had died since April 2015.
Speaking with newsmen in Ilorin, the state capital on Saturday, the chairman urged relevant authorities to urgently effect the payment of pension arrears to senior citizens.
Akanbi said the victims, who cut across the 16 Local Government Councils of the state, died as a result of their inability to get adequate health care attention.
“Among them were the state factional Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Sunday Fagbemi; a former PDP governorship aspirant in the state, Mr. Sunday Babalola; and the President, Afonja Descendants Union, Mr. Olola Kasum. No fewer than 3,000 of the pensioners were unable to buy drugs for their ailments.
“We have suffered unprecedented discrimination since Ahmed came to power in the state. We are senior citizens and deserve fair treatment. The number of our members who have died is the greatest in comparison with any other sector in the state,” the Chairman said, pleading with the state Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, to come to their aid by ensuring the payment of their pension arrears.
On his part, the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, said the governor was saddened by the plight of the local government pensioners.
While calling on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to intervene and assist the local governments to pay the arrears in order to curtail the spate of untimely deaths in the state, Akorede blamed the drop in Federation Account allocations for the non-payment of pensions.
He added that the state government was considering strategies to assist them within its available resources.
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