Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has called on pensioners in the state to come out en masse to vote for candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Saturday March 9, State House of Assembly election, to ensure that the state assembly is controlled by the APC.
Obaseki said that it was in the best interest of pensioners to vote APC candidates into the House of Assembly, as this will ensure speedy passage of bills and approval for other government instruments that will guarantee the sustenance of pension reforms in the state.
“The welfare of pensioners, who are our senior citizens, is important to this government. This is because we value our people, our workers, while in service and when they retire. We have commenced reforms of our pension system, which led to the clearing of pension arrears from as far back as the 1990’s and we are not going to stop now,” the governor assured.
He added: “We have more programmes outlined for pensioners and we are committed to making life better and easier for them.
“Their support has been instrumental to the successes being recorded in the state. This is why we need them to support the candidates of the APC in the upcoming election on Saturday. If APC has effective control of the House of Assembly, we would have a solid support base that will fast-track the execution of all our projects.
“I urge all pensioners to vote massively for all APC House of Assembly candidates to sustain the on-going payment of pension arrears,” he said.
Obaseki noted that Edo State ranks as one of the states in Nigeria that prioritised payment of pensioners despite the impact of an economic recession.
“Our decision to pay pensioners is because we know that they are a key part of the society. We have paid them when other states were foot-dragging. This was made possible by members of the APC dominated state House of Assembly.”
