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Joseph Inokotong, Abuja
The Federal Government has said it is taking the verification and payment of ex-workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) in the Diaspora to London, United Kingdom (UK).
The two-week exercise which will be conducted by an Inter-Ministerial Team begins today, Monday at the Nigerian High Commission Complex in London, UK.
The team, which will be coordinated by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), under the Federal Ministry of Finance, will comprise the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Auditor General’s Office, Accountant General’s Office, Federal Ministry of Finance among others.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Acting Director of PICA, Mr John Waitono, who is leading the team as representative of the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr Mohammad Kyari Dikwa, during the exercise.
The statement said the Federal Government approved the conduct of the exercise for those in the Diaspora in London, England due to the role the city of London played as the European Operational Office of the defunct NAL.
It noted that the essence of the exercise is to alleviate the hardship being experienced for more than a decade by the affected ex-staff while waiting for their benefits, and to save them the stress and financial burden of traveling to Nigeria for the exercise.
A similar exercise had taken place in Kano, Lagos and Enugu centres for the over 6, 000 ex-workers of NAL, following the approval of N22.6 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari, to pay their entitlements.
The Federal Government had paid the first 50 per cent of the entitlements to the ex-workers who had completed their verification exercise in October 2018.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who had apologised for the over ten years neglect by previous administrations, gave the directive that the verification and payment exercise for the ex-staff in the Diaspora be done in London to save them the cost and stress of traveling down to Nigeria.
