300,000 neglected pensioners now on FG’s payroll

About 300,000 people who worked in federal establishments but were disengaged without benefits mostly because their establishments were privatised, have been duly enlisted and are now drawing monthly pension. Executive Secretary of federal government’s Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Sharon Ikeazor, who disclosed this in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, added that the federal government pays this category of pensioners about N9 billion monthly pension through the PTAD.

Ikeazor who visited Yola to oversee an ongoing verification exercise former workers of the Savannah Sugar Company, Numan, as well as to open the Yola office of PTAD and preside over a Northeast zonal meeting of pensioners organised by the PTAD, also disclosed that the PTAD is saving the federal government the sum of N4.9 billion annually as a result of the payroll cleanup it achieved through its civil service verification exercise.

“During the privatisation exercise (of the Olusegun Obasanjo era), most of these outfits were sold liability-free to the companies that bought them. The liabilities were left for the federal government to shoulder. Remember we did verification for Delta Steel as well. Delta Steel was privatised in 2005 and the pensioners were left without payment, just like the Savannah Sugar Company which was sold also without provision for the pensioners.”

Some of the other former federal establishments whose pensioners the PTAD has similarly rescued include Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, NICON Insurance Corporation, NITEL/MTel, and New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) Ltd. “We have carried out civil service pension in the six geopolitical zones. We placed over 100,000 (civil service) pensioners back on the payroll, that is those who were dropped off the payroll because of past maladministration.

 We’ve also done the police pension where we put the war affected police officers on pension, those who had been long forgotten,” she said. but were disengaged without benefits mostly because their establishments were privatised, have been duly enlisted and are now drawing monthly pension. Executive Secretary of federal government’s Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Sharon Ikeazor, who disclosed this in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, added that the federal government pays this category of pensioners about N9 billion monthly pension through the PTAD.

Ikeazor who visited Yola to oversee an ongoing verification exercise former workers of the Savannah Sugar Company, Numan, as well as to open the Yola office of PTAD and preside over a Northeast zonal meeting of pensioners organised by the PTAD, also disclosed that the PTAD is saving the federal government the sum of N4.9 billion annually as a result of the payroll cleanup it achieved through its civil service verification exercise.

“During the privatisation exercise (of the Olusegun Obasanjo era), most of these outfits were sold liability-free to the companies that bought them. The liabilities were left for the federal government to shoulder. Remember we did verification for Delta Steel as well. Delta Steel was privatised in 2005 and the pensioners were left without payment, just like the Savannah Sugar Company which was sold also without provision for the pensioners.”

Some of the other former federal establishments whose pensioners the PTAD has similarly rescued include Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, NICON Insurance Corporation, NITEL/MTel, and New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) Ltd. “We have carried out civil service pension in the six geopolitical zones. We placed over 100,000 (civil service) pensioners back on the payroll, that is those who were dropped off the payroll because of past maladministration.

We’ve also done the police pension where we put the war affected police officers on pension, those who had been long forgotten,” she said.