The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) on Wednesday expressed worries at the safety of Pensioners and older people in the country , considering the increasing cases of the corona virus in Nigeria.
The union in a statement by the General Secretary Elder Actor Zal, said the group is worried by the medical experts revelation that the pandemic is unfriendly with the aged people and those above 65 years of age worst hit and hardly survive the pandemic if contacted.
The NUP further disclosed that based on the fact that the organisation is a union for the aged, the national secretariat of the union would be shutdown it’s activities from April 24 to May 27, 2020.
It also appealed to all pensioners and elderly people to obey all the directives of the government and observed all the protocols by staying at home withing this period.
The union further reinstate her earlier call for the inclusion of pensioners in the government palliative and relief materials being distributed to cushion the effects of the lockdown on the citizens.
“Having critically analysed the situation in the country upon the ravaging Covid-19 epidemic, the national headquarters has decided to extend the shutdown of its activities from 24th April to 27th May 2020.
“In line with the last press release from this office dated 24th march 2020 and the increasing numbers of corona virus victims in our country, it became very necessary for safety measures to extend the shutdown of the unions activities for the next one month, especially as the medical experts has revealed that corona virus is unfriendly with the aged people above 65yrs old.
“Therefore, the union activities shall resume officially on Wednesday 27th of May 2020 by which time we expect this pandemic to have been contained to the bearest minimum and a vaccine for the virus would have been found.
“However this decision is subject to further directive by the federal government/state
government on the on going lockdown.
“Equally, we wish to appeal to the federal government through the Presidential Task Force (PTF) to consider the inclusion of pensioners in the palliative packages as requested earlier in our press release of Wednesday 15th April 2020.”
End.
