We’ve lost over 1000 members, we’ll take the next dead body to Government House – Kaduna Pensioners declares

By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna 

Pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), in Kaduna State has vowed to henceforth take any of their dead members body to the State Government House.

Acting Chairman of the union, Professor Nate Danjuma, who spoke on behalf of over 30,000 pensioners after their Congress on Thursday, said so far the union has lost more than 1000 members while waiting for the state government to pay their entitlements.

“It will surprise you to know the number of people that retired from the state that have died in the last few years waiting for what they have laboured for; over 1000 of them.

“They are dying in droves virtually every day. In fact, I resolved today, I’m going to tell them that every time somebody dies, we are going to convey the corpse to Government House in Kaduna State.

“Everyday we are losing people, I’m telling you this. How would you leave service six years, seven years, eight years, nine years, ten years without receiving benefits. Some of them have not seen a single Kobo from government”. He said.

”The government don’t see any importance in paying us our entitlements, in fact, they feel we are just dropouts, we are irrelevant, we are outdated, we are people that are just waiting to die.

“We contributed to what Kaduna State is today. I was in the Ministry of Education, I mean, we accredited schools.

“But as I’m speaking today, I retired in 2019. Up to now, I have not received a single Kobo from government. It is God that has seen me and my family through to this day.

“And I want to tell the whole world, to listen, that I lost my wife because I didn’t have money to take her to a better hospital.

“We are suffering in Kaduna State.

If anybody who tells you that we are not suffering in Kaduna State, that person must be a professional liar.

And so, I’m talking from the depth of my heart. We have seen hell with the Kaduna State Government.” He laments.

He explained that all they want now is their payment and that they are not longer interested in the CPS because according to him the CPS is a scam.

“It is our money that was deducted, it is the money that has been kept and somebody in air-conditioned room is now controlling that money. You write letter to PENCOM and Pension Bureau, they don’t even care about you.

“Whatever steps we take today, we are going to tell the world, we are going to act. We are not, we are too experienced to go and protest like other people, no. But we will take the matured means.

And one of them will be, we are going to embark on serious prayers,” he said.