Office
By Mohammed Mamman
Damaturu, Aug. 9, 2018 (NAN) The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) on Thursday inaugurated a liaison office in Damaturu, Yobe, for easy access of its services to pensioners in North East.
The directorate’s Executive Secretary, Sharon Ikeazor, while inaugurating the office, said that PTAD
was committed to providing world class services to retired workers in the country.
Ikeazor, who was represented by the Director of Pension Support Services, Mrs Olufumilayo Olofuwunpo, said “the Federal Government gives priority to senior citizens who served the country and now retired.”
She said that the liaison office was to provide services to 10,183 retired civil servants in the North East.
She commended the Yobe Government “for its commitment toward paying state pensioners and for providing a befitting office to ease administration of pension matters.”
The Yobe Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, said that the state government had made the payment of
pension and gratuity a priority in spite of security and fiscal challenges faced by the state.
Gaidam, who was represented by Alhaji Saleh Abubakar, the state’s Head of Service, said more than
N5.3 billion was paid as retirement benefits to 2,716 pensioners from January 2014 to December 2017.
He added that the Yobe Government had concluded verification of retired officers up to June 2018, preparatory to payment of their benefits.
Mr Ade Afolayan, the President of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) said PTAD had sanitised payment of pensions in the country.
Represented by Alhaji Mohammed Sani, the North East Vice President of NUP, Afolayan said that the verification conducted by PTAD had facilitated prompt payment of pensions with dignity.
He described the payment of gratuity and pension in Yobe as “a role model that should be emulated by other state governments and employers of labour.” (NAN)
MM/HA
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Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu