The Pension
Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has announced that no less than 450
ex-Biafran policemen, who were pardoned in 2000 by ex-President Olusegun
Obasanjo, would soon get their pension and gratuities.
The
announcement was made by its Executive Secretary Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor, who also
added that the PTAD had enrolled about 220,000 pensioners and uncovered 9,000
ghost payees on Sunday.
The former
Biafran policemen will be getting their pension 46 years after the civil war,
which ended in January 1970.
The PTAD,
which has commenced the verification of pensioners in Northeast on Monday, is
expected to pay the 450 ex-policemen ‘immediately’ after they have scaled
through verification process.
While speaking
with reporters, she however said three former employees of PTAD were sacked
because of pension fraud and might be prosecuted by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission(EFCC).
Mrs Ikeazor
added that two other seconded employees have been referred to the Head of the
Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita for disciplinary action.
She said that
henceforth, pension payment would be effected by the 15th day of the month.
She said: “I
think we have about 220,000 pensioners nationwide on the payroll. There are
still people who are yet to be on the payroll because we haven’t verified them.
Right now, the verification that has been completed is Customs, Immigration,
Police and Prisons. But we are still doing quality assurance on some of them.
“I am now
signatory to pension payment, I make sure everything goes out every 15th of the
month. What I inherited at PTAD, I saw the challenges when I came in. I will be
honest, I won’t say the database is credible because of many years of neglect.
“What I intend
to do is to make sure that we have a credible database so that pensioners that
are being paid are the right ones.
“We have
already partnered with ICPC. We have established an Anti-Corruption Unit (ACTU)
in PTAD. What we are doing now is that we don’t make pension payment into any
account without BVN. With this policy, we have dropped about 9,000 pensioners
because they don’t have BVN.
“Without BVN
presupposes that they are ghost because we inherited a lot of data that we
cannot really verify.
“This is why
verification is important or key to us. We have only done two zones in
Nigeria-the North-West and the South- East zones. We are just computing those
ones now to be able to put them on the payroll and start paying.”
In response to
the plight of the 450 former Biafran policemen who are yet to be reintegrated,
she said:
“We have the
issue of War Affected Pensioners. You know, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo gave
amnesty to Biafran soldiers and policemen in 2000.
“The military
has taken care of the pension of the soldiers of the defunct Republic of Biafra
who were granted amnesty. But majority of the policemen have not been paid.
“So, when I
came in, they have now brought up the case before me and we are working on that
for them to get their dues. One of the men said to me that this is what he has
been waiting for before he dies. These men are in their 80s, some in their 90s.
Majority of them are from the
South-South and South
“I think they
are about 450 policemen. I wish you could interview them, they brought tears
into my eyes.
“The war is
over, we have to reintegrate them. It is just like rebuilding the North-East
now, we have to reintegrate these people from the South-South and South-East.”
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