The Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) has demanded palliatives and relief materials being distributed to vulnerable Nigerians to alleviate their suffering as a result of COVID-19 lockdown across the country.
While making the demands, the group insisted that they were the most vulnerable in the society to benefit from the palliative.
The union said their members should be number one beneficiaries of any palliative by the government, if the effort was targeted at the vulnerable.
This was disclosed in an interview by the General Secretary, NUP, Comrade Abel Afolayan.
Afolayan said the lockdown and movement restriction would affect the elderly, who are mostly pensioners.
He therefore advised President Muhammadu Buhari to, through the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, include the pensioners as the government begins the distribution.
To ensure that the palliatives get to pensioners, the general secretary advised the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, to liaise with the National Secretariat of the NUP, in Abuja for proper identification through her state and local government offices.
He said: “We have made a passionate appeal to the Federal Government to include Nigerian pensioners as beneficiaries in the palliatives to the vulnerable Nigerians, to cushion the effects of the lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pensioners.
“Pensioners are one of the most vulnerable in the country and therefore appealed to the presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to liaise with the union on how to get the palliative distribution to the real pensioners in all the nooks and crannies of the country.”
“Therefore, the union is well entrenched to ensure the distribution of the palliatives to their members at the grassroots with limited hitch,” he said.