Pensioners have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to include them in the palliative measures being distributed to vulnerable Nigerians by the Federal Government as a result of the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The pensioners noted that they should be the number one beneficiaries of government’s palliative because they are the most vulnerable group to the COVID-19 pandemic due to their old age.
They made the appeal in a statement by the General-Secretary, Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Elder Actor Zal, on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to the statement, the lockdown and restriction of movement would affect the elderly who are mostly pensioners.
They admonished Buhari to direct the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to include them as the government begins the distribution palliative to the most vulnerable.
The pensioners urged the PTF to liaise with the National Secretariat of the NUP in Abuja for proper identification in order to ensure that the palliatives get to genuine pensioners.
It reads: “The Nigeria union of pensioners (NUP) national headquarters has made a passionate appeal to the Federal Government to include Nigerian pensioners as beneficiaries in the palliatives to the vulnerable Nigerians, to cushion the effects of the lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pensioners.
“Pensioners are one of the most vulnerable in the country and therefore appealed to the presidential Task Force on covid -19 to liase with the union on how to get the palliative distribution to the real pensioners in all the nooks and crannies of the country.
“Therefore, the union is well entrenched to ensure the distribution of the palliatives to their members at the grassroots with limited hitch.”
The union said it has also written to the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Managment and Socio Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Faruk, on the imperative of including the pensioners in the palliative.