NAN-HE-14
Pensioners
By Kingsley Okoye
Abuja, Dec. 5, 2016 (NAN) The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), says it has included in its payroll and paid the pension arrears of 4,438 qualified pensioners.
This is contained in a statement signed by PTAD’s Executive Secretary, Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, in Abuja and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.
Ikeazor said that the pensioners paid were those verified in late 2015 in the North-West and South-East Zones of the country, respectively.
She said that the payment was part of PTAD’s effort to bring succor to pensioners under its jurisdiction.
According to her, PTAD had also in November 2015 carried out the verification and biometric capture of civil service pensioners in both zones.
The Executive Secretary said that a total of 28, 352 pensioners were verified after the exercise.
She said more than 11,000 of the verified pensioners were either found not to be enjoying their monthly pension or had filed a complaint at one time or the other on some outstanding pension benefits.
Ikeazor said that the management of PTAD approved the payment of the pension arrears after necessary computations and further checks by government auditors.
She said that the 4,438 pensioners who had been completely omitted from monthly pension had endured long years of neglect and suffering.
The recent appointment of a new management for the Agency had intensified the verification exercise which had been stalled since December 2015, the statement quoted Ikeazor as saying.
It added that the verification had resumed in the North-Eastern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba.
An estimated 6,000 pensioners were expected to be verified in the four centres in Yola, Bauchi, Gombe and Jalingo before Dec. 6, 2016, when the exercise would end in the zone, Ikeazor said. (NAN)
KC/DOR/AMY
Edited by Nyisom Dore/Abdullahi Yusuf