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By Damiete Braide
Pensioners in the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to save them from hardship and death by paying their outstanding five years’ pension arrears, which amounts to N3 billion.
President of the NNSL Pensioners Welfare Association (PWA), Patrick Azu Ogobuegwu, who led a peaceful demonstration of the pensioners in Lagos last week said their ordeal started at the expiration of the illegal upfront pension payment of five years in November, 2013.
He said that parastatals like NITEL, NICON, Delta Steel Company and NNSL, among others, consequently formed a committee to put pressure on the Federal Government to reinstate them to the Federal Government Pension Payroll in accordance with the Federal Government Pension Act.
“Unfortunately, while the pension of all other defunct parastatals were restored, an administrative error was made by the omission of NNSL by PTAD in their letter seeking approval from Federal Ministry of Finance, this was later corrected by PTAD in another letter to Federal Ministry of Finance on December 22, 2017.
“The letter from PTAD to Federal Ministry of Finance was given approval vide letter on April 19, 2018, in which the ministry of finance directed PTAD to carry out due diligence and verification including biometric capture of all beneficiaries before payment of outstanding liabilities and inclusion in the monthly payroll” he said.
The protest held at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Marina, Lagos, took off at 10am. It had the pensioners carrying placards with inscriptions such as, “Five years’ arrears not paid, wetin we do!!” “SOS PTAD pay us our pension”; “What has NNSL done to PTAD to deny us our pension”; “NNSL pensioners are dying due to non-payment of their money to take care of themselves and families.”
He lamented that their story was pathetic, noting that 28 months after President Buhari had approved their re-instatement to the pension payroll in September 2016 and 20 months after all their files were taken to Abuja on June 13, 2017, as well as 10 months after the Federal Ministry of Finance directed verification with a view to paying their entitlements on April 19, 2018, their hopes have been dashed.
Ogobuegwu said on average, he goes to Abuja every two months, putting his life at risk in spite of his age, without any positive response from PTAD.
He stated further, “Our story is pathetic, you can’t imagine that, at my age of over 70, I travel to Abuja on a night bus risking my life and nobody is giving attention to us.
“We are about 1,000 plus in 1995, when we were sent away abruptly, but today, we are not up to 800. Many of us have died without their entitlements.
“We wonder what the problem is, Mr. President has done his part, the Minister her part, but PTAD; we don’t know if we have offended anybody there.”
