PTAD to embark on mobile verification of 8 pensioners in Edo – Official
NAN-HE-12
Verification
By Deborah Ogedemgbe
Benin, March 7, 2017 (NAN) The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) says it has concluded plans to carry out mobile verification on eight pensioners who have been reported bedridden in various hospitals across Edo.
An official of the Directorate and Team Leader, Mr Kabiru Yesuf, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Benin as the pension verification entered its eighth day.
Yesuf said plans were underway for the verification of pensioners who had either relocated or currently in the Diaspora.
He, however, said “the plan has not been concluded yet, it is still in the pipeline in the directorate’’.
He said so far no fewer than 3,849 pensioners, out of the 5,900 of the federal and state pensioners with federal shares, had been verified in the exercise expected to end on Thursday.
He said the figure represented the verification carried out on pensioners since the commencement of the exercise in the state from Feb. 27 to March 4.
Meanwhile, mixed reactions have trailed the exercise which majority of the pensioners has adjudged the best in recent times.
While some of them believe that the exercise is just a formality and will still end up like previous ones, some, however, were optimistic that government will work with the outcome of the exercise.
According to a retiree, who simply gave his name as Mr Onaiwu, from the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, the verification will not solve any problems for them.
Onaiwu said the exercise was another ploy to defraud the pensioners because it was being carried out to ascertain the exact number of pensioners who had passed away since the last exercise so that their pensions and gratuities would be diverted.
Another pensioner, Eromosele Akhubue, said that the exercise was another punishment for the tired and feeble pensioners as the directorate ought to work with results of previous exercises.
However, Mr Omozuanfo Ramanu, a retiree from the Nigerian Observer Newspapers, commended the exercise as the best in recent times and expressed optimism that after the verification, pensioners would begin to get their entitlements.
According to him, he has not been paid in the last 70 months, having received his pension last in 2011.
Abraham Orobhor, a retiree from the Federal Ministry of Education, expressed optimism, saying he was last paid more than seven years ago.
NAN, however, reported that the pensioners were provided an environment conducive for the exercise and attended to in an orderly manner by personnel of the Directorate.
Breakfast and lunch, jointly sponsored by PTAD and the Edo Government, was provided for the pensioners daily.
Security personnel from the DSS, Mobile Police Force and the NSCDC provided security while priority was given to pensioners who were sick and very weak, as well as the aged. (NAN)
DCO/DOR/IA
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Edited by Nyisom Dore/Idris Abdulrahman