Taraba pensioners demand payment from Paris Club refund

Pensioners in Taraba State under the platform of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) yesterday demanded that the state government use part of the Paris Club refund to pay the backlog of their gratuities.

They are seeking the payment of state, local councils and primary school pensioners.

The pensioners, who expressed their displeasure over government’s ‘deliberate refusal’ to resolve their plight, said, “using part of the Paris Club fund would go a long way in reducing their sufferings.

State chairman of NUP, Hassan Abubakar, said the pensioners were also pleading with the state government to release additional funds to the local government pensions board to commence the payment of their monthly pensions and arrears to the local government and primary school teachers.

He noted that the inability of the government to enroll the 700 local government and primary school teachers into the monthly pensions was worrisome.

Abubakar, however, commended the state government for embarking on the screening and capturing of local government and primary school pensioners, adding that the need for the screening exercise could not be overstretched.

They lamented that over one hundred of pensioners who were successfully screened and captured, have not been receiving their pensions for over one year and advised that the government should urgently commence the payment of their pensions.