The Local Government Pensioners who are retirees from the 16 Local Government Councils in Kwara State, have commenced seven days fasting and prayers for what they term as God’s intervention over their unpaid gratuity and pension arrears.
The secretary of the Local Government Pensioners Association in Kwara, Mr Saidu Oladimeji, disclosed this in a press statement signed by him.
He said the pensioners who are over 6,000 that had served the 16 local government councils in the state are being owed 5 billion Naira gratuity and over 2 billon Naira pension arrears.
He lamented that the essence of the seven days fasting and prayers by the senior citizens, was to seek God’s favour for the settlement of their unpaid pensions and gratuity.
Oladimeji, who described the fasting as voluntary, said majority of pensioners across the 16 LGAs most of whom he regarded as septuagenarians and octogenarians, were participating in the exercise.
He further said since 2008, when the payment of gratuity and epileptic payment of pension had commenced, the association had lost 1, 720 members across the state.
One of the members of the association and former secretary of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Mr Zulu Umar, who also spoke with journalists, said several of their colleagues died without taking their gratuity.
He attributed some of their association members deaths to various ailments and their inability to buy drugs or access modern medical treatment following unpaid gratuities and pensions.
Reacting to the commencement of the seven-day fasting and prayers by the retired local government workers, the Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr lsiaka Danmairomu, described the exercise as the only solution.
Danmairomu, however, attributed the non-payment of backlog of gratuities and pensions of the former local government workers to the current economic recession which he says brought about a shortfall in monthly allocation to the councils.
Nevertheless, he urged the fasting pensioners to use the period to pray for the whole country, in order to overcome various challenges confronting it.