By Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN—NIGERIA Union of Pensioners, NUP, has called on the Federal Government to urgently establish a Ministry of Pension Affairs that would cater for the aged and pensioners with a view to reducing the hardship and challenges faced by its members across the country.

The union also called on the government to prosecute all alleged pension racketeers, who had stolen billions of pensioners’ funds, insisting that those found culpable should be dealt with according to the laws of the land.

National President of NUP, Dr. A. Afolayan, who made the call in Benin City, Edo State, yesterday, during the 2014 National Pensioners’ Day, urged the government to investigate the mismanagement and abuse of office which he said, has been the lot of pension administration in the country and the culprits brought to book.

Afolayan, whose address was read by the Edo State Public Relations Officer of NUP, Mr Vincent Aigbodion, queried the method employed by government officials in the verification exercise of pensioners, saying that there should be decent method free of stress that could be used.

“If Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC can register millions of voters on Ward basis, pensioners too can be verified on state or local government basis to minimise untimely deaths,” he said.