The Ekiti State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), yesterday, blamed ‘corrupt’ civil servants as being responsible for the plight of the senior citizens, owing to their alleged underhand dealings and connivance with politicians to steal money kept in lieu of gratuities.

The pensioners, who said that they were being owed N40 billion, said that the last pensioners to receive their gratuities in the state were the 2012 batch for local council retirees and 2013 for state pensioners respectively, despite deductions of same from their monthly pay over the years.

Chairman of the NUP, Joel Akinolata, disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti during an inter-religious prayer organised by the union to seek divine help over their unpaid gratuities.

Akinola, while addressing the pensioners during the prayer session, noted that many civil servants allegedly resorted to stealing because they wanted to do everything possible to secure their future without considering the current state of pensioners.

He said that many members of the union had died without collecting their gratuities, while many are bedridden and couldn’t afford healthcare services.

The NUP chairman, however, expressed optimism that Governor Abiodun Oyebanji would pay their outstanding benefits and put smiles on the faces of the senior citizens considering his body language, willingness and love for them.

He said: “The bulk of the problems we have as pensioners is corruption. When you are talking about my gratuities, the government has been setting aside some parts of my salary. They deduct eight per cent and add 10 per cent to keep in account till when I will retire, but where is the money?

“The money should be somewhere and it is the civil servants that should bring it out. The governor is not a signatory to the state account. Because we have civil servants that have taken aggrandisement as a way of life, they don’t care, forgetting that they will soon join us.”

Meanwhile, the Chief Imam of Ansar-Ud-Deen Mosque, Ado Ekiti, Abdulfatah Abdultalib, has urged Ekiti State government to strive harder to defray the outstanding benefits of pensioners so as to give them a relief.