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Lawyers want welfare of pensioners, elderly prioritised

Some lawyers resident in the Federal Capital Territory on Friday urged relevant authorities to prioritise the welfare of pensioners and the elderly in the society.

LAWYERS

Some lawyers resident in the Federal Capital Territory on Friday urged relevant authorities to prioritise the welfare of pensioners and the elderly in the society.

The lawyers expressed the viewpoint in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Ms Maria Akpa advocated for pensioners to receive their pensions before salaries were paid.

These pensioners, like my father, gave their all in service. The work environment was not even as conducive as we have today with modern computers, split unit air conditioners and so on.

Yet, these people were dedicated to their work and so, the system must appreciate the services they rendered, by giving them their pensions timely and with respect,” she said.

Mr Mark Finecountry harped on the need for pensioners, the elderly and the vulnerable in the society to be treated with respect and compassion.

According to Finecountry, it is rather unfortunate that every day, we hear of large sums of pension funds being embezzled by those supposed to administer these funds judiciously.

It is just unimaginable that somebody will want to spend money meant for pensioners; these are people who have given their best years to this country.

I even heard once that a serving governor referred to pensioners as `dead people’, that is just absurd,” he said.

Ms Iveren Or urged relevant agencies to evolve measures that will make it difficult for anyone to have easy access to pension funds except the pensioners themselves.

She called for the timely disbursement of pension funds, saying that the temptation to embezzle arose when payment was delayed and the funds kept accruing.

If the money is paid on time, you will realise that there won’t be so much money in the account.

But when someone sees so much money in an account, and the money is not being paid to anyone, he thinks he can quickly help himself to some.” (NAN)

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