Senior citizens under auspices of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), on Wednesday said they have resolved to embark on a massive protest, starting Friday morning across 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory in order to press home their demands on ‘minimum pension’.
Outgoing President of the NUP, Abel Afolayan, who made this known in Abuja while speaking to journalists at the 11th quadrennial delegate conference of the union, said his members would ground the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Afolayan told newsmen that the Union had issued the federal government an ultimatum on the protest but nothing has been done, insisting that the pensioners cannot continue to languish in abject poverty amidst skyrocketed prices of daily needs.
The union leader said, “We are protesting because they have refused to release the letter of pension increment, consequential upon the minimum wage and salary adjustment to workers, two years after that was done.
“The welfare of Pensioners are still terrible. The pensioners are not being treated well at all. Many pensioners are suffering. Some earn as low as N5,000 and they are not being paid as and when due. Even as we speak now the pension increase, consequential upon the national minimum wage and salary adjustment is yet to be effected, two years after those of the workers have been done.”