NNN pensioners lament non- release of entitlements

Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), New Nigerian Newspapers branch has cried out over the continued delay by the Director of Cash Management in the Finance Ministry Mr. Samson Arowojolu to release their entitlements. It will be recalled that after the verification exercise conducted by Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), conducted their verification exercise and the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun had since approved N2.1 billion to pay them.
The pensioners’ leaders Malam Idi Sule and Albert Iweka made the charge in a letter addressed to the director, which was copied to the Ministers of Finance and Education, Attorney General of the Federation, Secretary to the Government of the Federation [SGF] and Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF). In the letter, the Pensioners say Mr. Arowojolu refused to release the payment on the grounds that the federal government had already settled all its liabilities to NNN pensioners in 2013, when it paid them N1.2 billion.
In the letter dated April 5, 2018 the NNN pensioners said the moribund newspaper company is listed in the Second Schedule of the Pension Act Cap 346 Laws of the Federation 2004 as one of the parastatals whose staff are entitled to pension.
They are the staff who served the company in 1975 to 2006 when the company was still under the ownership of the federal government before it was transferred back to the 19 Northern states. They complained that they are being owed more than 100 months of pensions and 170 of their members have since died waiting for their pension to be paid. Others, they said, have been subjected to untold hardship for many years and just when they were about to receive their pension, the Cash Director blocked it with an untenable argument. They referred to Federal High Court FHC/KAD/CS/137/ 2011 ruling which ordered the Federal Government to pay them N5.8billion in accumulated pension from January 2000 to March 2014.
They said the government paid N2.1bn in partial compliance with that order but that the pensioners got only six months’ arrears of their dues. Mallam Sule said that “whereas the humane and compassionate administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and his equally compassionate Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun have taken bold steps to correct the injustice meted out to us for over a decade, Mr. Arowojolu has brought every wicked bureaucratic red tape he can find to ensure that we and our families continue to suff er and die needlessly.”