Group seeks policies to protect elderly people
The Senior Citizens Care Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, has berated the federal and state governments over their insensitive attitude towards the plight of the elderly in the society.
In a statement jointly released in Lagos by the foundation’s National Coordinator, Mr Jide Taiwo and the Corporate Communication Adviser, Princelyn Oduenyi, the group lamented the ill treatment the society has continually meted out on her senior citizens.
The group admonished government to always see it as a point of duty to ensure that retirees are not abandoned at their old age.
The foundation said she has asked her legal team to formally write the Edo State Government, the Inspector General of Police and the Edo State Commissioner of Police to know the extent government have gone on some recent unfortunate incidents in the State where, for example, a young tenant snuffed the life out of his 83-year-old landlord simply because the old man wanted to know why the young man had refused to pay his rent since 2014.
“And the most recent which was perpetrated by a hoodlum whom police described as a teenage cultist and serial killer who has been on their wanted list is the gruesome murder of a 65 year old grandmother Mrs Clara Uwaifo, a retired headmistress, by a neighbour whose family has been at loggerheads with the deceased,” the group said.
“We have several other ugly incidences such as this, but the unfortunate thing is that nobody seems to stand up for these frail and vulnerable elder statesmen and women in our society. Governments continued nonchalant attitude to some of these heinous crimes must be condemned by all and will no longer be tolerated.
