The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has urged Governor Ayodele Fayose to spare a thought for the welfare of pensioners and workers generally by paying them their salaries and allowances to stop avoidable deaths among retired workers and those still in active service.
Pensioners’ union in the local government councils had on Monday called a press conference to highlight their plights, including the death of four pensioners within a month, due to non-payment of their pensions since 2014.
They complained that non-payment of their pensions had made life difficult for them in their old age after meritorious services to the state during their productive years, lamenting that non-payment of their pensions had made it difficult to buy food and essential drugs for their health needs while they could not also pay their wards’ school fees.
Reacting to the lamentations of the pensioners, the party in a statement by the Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, criticised the governor’s careless attitude to the plights of pensioners, lamenting that it is regrettable that the governor who often claimed to be the friends of workers and masses in general, could be “so heartless” and close his eyes to the plights of workers and senior citizens that deserved care.
“It is heartless for Governor Fayose to collect a bailout of about N20b and monthly Budget Support Facility of N1.3b for nine months with the mandate to spend the money for pensions and salaries to refuse to apply the money according to the protocol of the financial aid by the Federal Government to cushion the harsh effects of the recession only for the governor to divert the money for selfish reasons while workers and pensioners die daily of hunger and at the risk of life-threatening ailments.
“APC sympathises with the families of the four pensioners who died within a month because of their incapacitation to buy drugs for a healthy living while we also condemn the governor in strong terms for his failure to pay local government workers for nine months despite receiving the monthly share for local governments from the Federation Account, while also refusing to pay the state’s workforce for six months, even though he received cash for the purpose,” Olatunbosun said.
He urged the governor to devote attention to people’s welfare and good governance instead of wasting the state’s resources to fight the Federal Government in the media and other frivolities and distractions that are not beneficial to the people.
“We urge the Labour leaders to stop their unholy alliance with the governor in the denial of the larger population of workforce their entitlements by hobnobbing with the governor and giving him awards to present a false picture to the public that the governor is taking care of the interest of workers while in actual fact workers remain unpaid for between six and nine months while pensioners have no hope of getting the attention of the governor in the payment of their entitlements,” Olatunbosun concluded.
Commenti