More than
25,000 pensioners are still excluded from the Federal Government’s payroll of
retirees, according to the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP). Lagos Chapte
r
Chairman of NUP, Joseph Dele, told newsmen on Sunday that the affected
pensioners were not among over 300,000 paid under Defined Benefits Scheme and
Contributory Pension Scheme.
The NUP
urged federal government to mandate the Pension Transitional Arrangement
Directorate (PTAD) to conduct verification exercise for the affected pensioners
to enable them get gratuities for their long years of service. He described
allegations that officials of the union were involved in pension fund scam as
an excuse not to pay NUP members excluded from the payroll system. “The
Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, alleged that the pension
fraud was perpetrated by public officials with the active connivance of NUP,
Association of Federal Public Service Retirees, among others. “NUP did not
collude with anyone to list 16,238 ghost pensioners to siphon N839 million to
fictitious pensioners monthly. “Over 25,000 and not 16,238 members were still
excluded on the payroll. “They are not fictitious pensioners as claimed by the
AGF and as we speak they are not on federal government payroll,” he said. Dele
explained that only one per cent of monthly pensioners’ fund was remitted to the
NUP secretariat for maintainance and other ad-hocs services. NAN
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