The federal government has finalised arrangements to delist from its payroll some 23,089 pensioners with effect from this month (August 2020).
The decision, according to the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) followed the “review and analysis” of the field verification exercise it carried out for pensioners between April and November 2019, as well as a follow-up exercise held at the PTAD headquarters in Abuja and Lagos Liaison Office prior to the lockdown.
A document obtained by our correspondent Tuesday shows that the names included about 2,220 retirees of the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
PTAD had already written to president of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) to inform the union on her decision to stop the payment of affected persons.
Those affected, according to the document, were pensioners of Treasury Funded Parastatals and the Universities under the Defined Benefits Scheme.
The letter titled: “Removal of parastatals pensioners that did not undergo verification from the Directorate’s Pension Payroll” was dated 9 July, 2020 and addressed to NUP president, national headquarters, Abuja, with special attention to all the national vice presidents of the parastatals.
The letter, signed by the director, Parastatals Pension Department, Kabiru Yusuf, for the PTAD executive secretary read: “The chairman may recall that the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) carried out a field verification exercise for Pensioners of Treasury funded Parastatals and the Universities under the Defined Benefits Scheme from April to November 2019 across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Thereafter, the Directorate continued to verify pensioners who missed the field exercise at our Abuja headquarters and Lagos Liaison Office until the lockdown as a result of COVID-19.
“l have been directed to inform you that following a comprehensive review and analysis of the verification data, a total of 23,089 pensioners who have not participated in the directorate’s verification exercise have been identified to be on payroll and have not come for verification.
“In addition, the directorate has not received any formal notification that these pensioners are out of Nigeria or that they are sick and thus unable to come for verification. Consequently, the directorate shall remove them from payroll with effect from August 2020 pension payment.
“This list contains 2, 220 pensioners that are retirees of the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).”
Speaking on the development, NUP general secretary, Elder Actor Zal warned against such move.
He said the union would look at the list, scrutinise it and write a “strongly worded” letter to PTAD on the need for them to be very careful and more than 100 per cent sure of what they are about to do.
“We are going through the list, we want to scrutinise it very well and we are writing a strongly worded letter to PTAD on the matter. While the Nigeria Union of Pensioners is not averse to PTAD doing its work by removing unverified pensioners, dead pensioners or ghost pensioners from the payroll, at the same time, we want them to be very careful.”
