The lingering hardship faced by federal retirees under the old pension scheme is making some groups to threaten to pull out of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners due to its alleged inability to protect the interest of the retirees.
Some pensioners have also dissociated themselves from different allegations of fraud levelled against the pension administrators/regulators.
ASU also accused the NUP of inefficiency in addressing the needs of the Nigerian pensioners.
According to a statement signed by the Chairman of ASU, Alhaji Rasak Ope, and the Secretary, Franklin Erinle, ASU comprises pensioners from the DBS and the Contributory Pension Scheme, who have been operating under the NUP for many years.
It stated, “We wish to disassociate ourselves from the corruption charges against some leaders of the NUP since we have consistently been opposed to leaders, whose main objective in unionism is to make money.
“To buttress our claims, we will like to inform the general public of our consistent efforts to resist any leadership that refuses to be transparent but accuses others; this is like the case of a burglar accusing the house owner of extravagance over what he owns or acquired legitimately.”
ASU stated some of its grievances as the alleged pension fraud against the former head of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdul-Rasheed Maina; connivance of the NUP that allowed such alleged fraud to happen under its watch; alleged unaccountability of the officials of the NUP; and the reported inability of the NUP to defend the rights of Nigerian pensioners.
The group claimed that some states’ councils were doing better than the national headquarters of the NUP, both in terms of human management and constructive use of funds.
ASU stated, “How does it sound that out of 24 national posts in the NUP, only one position is reserved for the Federal Civil Service and Federal Parastatal Pensioners?
The National President, NUP, Dr. Abel Afolayan, said he would speak on the issue levied against the union later.
