Pensioners Verification: Federal Government Allays  Fear By  NAL Ex-Workers On Omission, Missing Names

Zainab Ahmed

By CLEMENT NWOJI, Abuja

The federal government has allayed the  fears  of those whose names were either omitted or missing in master list of pensioners in the ongoing verification exercise of the liquidated Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) former workers.

The government had apart from creating help desk to facilitate resolution of the problem, has extended the timeframe for rounding off the verification exercise by seven days

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed,  disclosed these  while addressing the pensioners in Lagos.

She  said the account of those verified will be credited with their entitlements this week, adding that the exercise, which was meant to end on Monday, October 22, has been extended by additional one week to attend to all qualified beneficiaries.

She said the verification exercise and payment of all entitlements of the pensioners was based on the recent directives and approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, according to a release by the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications, Mr Paul Ella Abechi.

The Minister was represented by the head of the federal government delegation on inspection tour of the various centres and secretary, Presidential initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), Dr Mohammed K. Dikwa.

According to Dr Dikwa, adequate measures have been put in place to address some challenges being encountered since the exercise started last week Monday, fast track the process and get every pensioner properly verified.

He appealed to the pensioners to be patient and remain orderly, adding, after the verification exercise, 50% payment of entitlements will be made in this first tranch by next week.

He stressed that the process which is being supervised by officials of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was to make the exercise transparent and credible. Also the biometric capturing of all verified pensioners will address cases of duplicity and ensure seamless payment of the remaining 50% entitlements of the ex-workers.

For those who are deceased and missing documents, he said that separate desks has also been created in the three centres, in Kano, Enugu and Lagos, to ensure they are verified to enable them receive their entitlements.

Those who accompanied Dr Dikwa on the inspection include; the Special Adviser to the honourable minister of finance on media and communications, Mr Paul Ella Abechi, Special Adviser  to the honourable minister of finance, Mr Abubakar Aruwa and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.