The Senior Citizens Care Foundation (SCCF) has condemned Kwara State government for pulling down-home of the elderly in the state called “Ile Arugbo” built by late Senator Abubakar Olusola Saraki, and in particular for ignoring the plea of a group of elderly women not to do so.
Executive Director of the Foundation, Mr Jide Taiwo, made the condemnation in a release made available to the Tribune Online during the weekend, saying SCCF distanced itself firstly from the politics behind such demolition.
Besides, he said the Foundation was also condemning the Kwara government for not being compassionate and sensitive to the yearning of this poor elderly who it could have just relocated first as they were senior citizens and part of the people the government should be responsible to.
Also, he said the act displayed by the Kwara government had shown “their insensitivity to the pain of the elderly despite the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari signed an Act into Law in 2017 that Federal and state government should have a Senior Citizens centre.”
“SCCF distance itself firstly from the politics behind this event but we are berating the Kwara State Government for not being compassionate and sensitive to the yearning of this poor elderly who they could have just relocated first because they are Senior Citizens and part of the people the government should be responsible for,” Taiwo said.
According to him, whatever the state government would have intended to achieve by such action “based on revoking approval for the property “would have been for the purpose of revoking the land not turning most of this elderly to homeless.”
“The interest of this elderly residing within the premises should have been considered and protected first by relocating them or they make a temporary place for them first,” SCCF Executive Director said.
Taiwo argued that a place like Ile Arugbo was a model Kwara State government could have adopted and developed better, calling on political leaders in the country to ensure that the care of the elderly was not negotiable and their benefits also addressed as being done in the western world.
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