Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja pensioners verification begins

Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja pensioners verification begins

ON October 3, 2017 5:16 PM / IN News / BY
Ugoh Solomon Chinonso
By Onozure Dania
Lagos— ANXIOUS pensioners have besieged the NUT Pavilion, Alausa, Lagos, for a verification exercise being conducted by officials of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, PTAD.
The exercise, which began yesterday and will end Friday October 6, is aimed at capturing the data of no fewer than 4,000 retirees of New Nigeria Newspapers, Nicon Insurance, Nigeria Civil Defence and Re-Insurance, from Lagos, Kaduna and Abuja.
An official of PTAD, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “the verification exercise is to ascertain those that have been paid gratuity and those still waiting to be paid.”
The first set of pensioners that were attended to were the elderly and those with health challenges.
However, those who came late for the exercise were turned back and asked to come back the next day.
It was gathered that some of the pensioners were disengaged in 2006 and have not been their pensions and gratuities since then, while other have been paid their gratuities recently.
Some of the pensioners complained of lost documents either on transit or through fire incidents. Those who volunteered information on condition of anonymity, lamented the pension issue has been lingering for a very long time, saying they had lost hope of ever collecting their pensions, until recently when the verification exercise commenced.