Taraba pensioners may boycott 2023 polls over unpaid gratuities

Pensioners in Taraba State have resolved not to participate in the general elections in 2023 over the government’s alleged failure to settle outstanding gratuities.

At a world press conference in Jalingo, yesterday, the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Taraba chapter, expressed sadness at the alleged lackadaisical attitude of Governor Darius Ishaku’s government towards their plight.

Their threats, The Guardian gathered, are coming a few days after some media organisations and contractors lamented the unpaid debts being owed them by the state government.

Led by the state chairman, Kefas Katan, the union lamented that the backlog of gratuities for retired civil servants in the state had risen to N30 billion.

The union also cried out over the 1,000 local council retirees, who left service about five to 10 years ago and were neither enrolled for pension nor paid gratuities.

While many of them, according to Katan, have died in silence, those alive are suffering from various ailments and cannot fend for their families.