No contact yet with abductors of Dariye’s father

• Plateau retirees protest unpaid benefits

THERE is no clue yet to the whereabouts of Pa Dafwang Dariye, the father of former governor of the state, Senator Joshua Dariye, who was abducted last Saturday night. 

   Pa Dariye is a community leader in Horop village, Mushere District of Plateau State. 

   A family source said the kidnappers left some phone numbers behind, describing the numbers are fake, as they are not going through when dialed. While some of the numbers are 12 figures, others were not up to 11 digits, making it impossible to establish contact between them and the kidnappers.

   The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Senator Gyang Pwajok, had visited the country home of Dariye in Horop to pay solidarity.

   A source, while speaking to The Guardian alleged that Pa Dariye’s kidnap was politically motivated to destabilise his son who is seeking re-election to the Senate, adding that the abductors had thought that the elections would hold as previously scheduled on February 14.

   Meanwhile, Pensioners in the state, under the state branch of Pensioners Union of Nigeria (NUP), yesterday protested, demanding an upward review of their current N5,140 monthly pension to a “more humane” amount.

   They also expressed regret that even the N5,140 monthly pension had not been paid in the last six months and that as much as N4 billion gratuity was being owed them by the state government.

   During the protest, the pensioners held various placards reading, “The aged are suffering, treat them with kindness.” “We can’t pay our children’s school fees.” “Many have died. Many more are dying. Pay our pension,” among others.

 According to Chairman of the Union, Chief Sunday Jimoh Danladi, “The government of Plateau State is not taking care of pensioners at all. We have for months been writing letters on harmonization, review of pension and so on, but to no avail. We did Christmas without arrears and up to now, there is no monthly pension, and our members are dying.”

   Danladi recalled that the Plateau State Government last reviewed minimum monthly pension from N2,000 to N5,140 about 10 years ago, when Joshua Dariye was the governor, and that this is what the pension had been since, against the position of the law that pension should be reviewed every five years or every time there is a review of workers salaries, depending on which comes first.