Sacked Kaduna blind workers appeal to El-Rufai to pay their benefits

By GARBA MUHAMMAD, Kaduna

Nigerian Association for the Blind, Kaduna State Chapter has appealed to Kaduna State Government to pay the entitlement of their recently retired members to ease their hardship.

Speaking to Journalists at the Kaduna State Council secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Public Relations Officer of the association, Mallam Ismail Abubakar said about 30 of their members were issued with retirements and sack letters.

He lamented that most of their members attended vocational training centers both in Kaduna and Lagos states and have not attained the retirement age in civil service but they were issued with retirement letters while other members were sacked.

Mallam Ismail Abubakar further explained that sacking and retiring of their members would force them into streets begging dispite the fact that there are existing laws against begging in the state.

The Public Relations Officer explained that about 60 of their members that were sacked and retired in twenty sixteen were yet to receive their entertainments.

He appealed to Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru Ahmed Elrufai to come to their aids looking at their conditions as the heads of their families and this holy month of Ramàdan to pay their entitlements and reversed the decision of sacking of workers in the state.

Among the victims of this April retirement, Hauwa Hassan who worked for twenty six years at Kaduna North Local Government said she accepted the retirement in good faith but appealed to the government to pay them their entitlements on time in order to go into businesses to take care of school fees of their children and their feedings.

Abdulhameed Yakubu from Kaduna North and Mallam Ibrahim Rabiu from Zaria Local Government lamented that they were retired in 2016 and their entitlements were not paid up to date.

Rabiu explained that from 2016 to date he lost both his wife and a daughter due to inability to pay for blood transfusion of his daughter.

“Now I am homeless because my landlord gave me a quite notice letter,” he added.