The Nigeria Labour Congress and the National Union of Local Government Employees in Kwara State have called on government to pay pensioners' gratuities since 2008.

The Chairman of NLC in the state, Yekini Agunbiade, and the Secretary of the NULGE in the state, Abayomi Afolabi, made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

According to the NULGE Secretary, arrears of gratuities of pensioners in the local government stand at N14 billion. Afolabi said the last time gratuity was paid to retired teachers and LG workers was in May 2008.

The NULGE scribe held that many of the pensioners that retired in 2008 have died due to lack of money to take good care of their health.

On his part, Agunbiade said workers in the state will not subscribe to the contributory pension scheme the state government was planning to introduce until the N14 billion gratuities were settled.