Some federal retirees have carried out a protest over their non-payment of their pensions and other entitlements that are being attached to them after eight months of their verification by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate.
During the protest which was held in Lagos, the Defined Benefits Scheme retirees have theme the protest ‘From retirement to grave’ and summoned the Federal Government to relieve their sufferings that are being caused as a result by non-payment of their entitlements.
Mr. David Adodo, who is the Chairman of the Federal Concerned Pensioners, said that the retirees have decided to emerge a protest because eight months after their verification, there had been no response or a detailed explanation on why their money has not been paid.
He said,
“A lot of pensioners are not on payroll for the past seven years and more and yet the agency is not sensitive to their plight. They are not even telling us what is happening; they are just keeping quiet.
We are talking about hunger here; the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate does not understand the meaning of hunger. Our 33 pension per cent increase is still outstanding; pay us our pensions in full. People are indebted and suffering.”
According to him, sometimes pensioners on the payroll are not paid in time.
Last year, Mr. David Adodo, the Executive Secretary of the PTAD, had made a statement that federal retirees who had not been earning pensions would be put on payroll few months after their verifications have been carried out.
During the verification of federal civil service pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme, in Lagos on Monday, she said that the Federal Government was trying to work out modalities in order to settle the arrears of its retirees’ pensions.
According to her, the Federal Government pays a monthly pension of N7.5bn to retirees in the old pension scheme, and these funds are always released regularly.
