Mr Fidelis Oyakhilome, the President of Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (ARPON), on Friday urged the Federal Government not to delay the payment of pensioners’ entitlements.
Oyakhilome, a former Military Administrator of Rivers, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
According to him, any money paid to the pensioners that is delayed means the pensioner has been short-changed.
“ Pension even though delayed, is not denial; any money you pay to a pensioner which is delayed means you have short-changed the beneficiary.
“First of all, that money could have gone into bank and would have yielded interest; secondly, many pensioners are sick and have no money to purchase drugs.
“Because of this, they die before their pension money is paid to them and all in all the pensioners are the losers; they are not paid when they ought to be paid,’’ the president APRON said.
He expressed satisfaction with the management of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) and the efforts the directorate had made to ensure that Nigerian pensioners were paid their monies.
The one-time Inspector-General of Police said that police pensioners were previously owed 42 months arrears but this had been reduced to 39 months.
“Pensioners that are sick are suffering from one pain or the other and nothing can cure them except they take drugs and they need money to buy drugs.”
Oyakhilome said the financial pressure on pensioners was too much, stressing that that most pensioners were now feeble, old and needed everybody’s assistance.
He urged governments and Nigerians to help the pensioners because every civil servant would one day retire and become a pensioner.
He called on the Federal Government to immediately pay the pensioners their pensions because their patience was running out, adding that many of them were sick and had no money to buy drugs (NAN).
GOM/IA