3rd February, 2017
Some pensioners who retired from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from 2005 to 2013 on Friday appealed to the Pensions Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to pay their pension arrears.
Some of the pensioners, who spoke to NAN in Lagos, decried the delay in the payment of their monthly pension.
Mr Lasis Busari, one of the retirees, said that the PTAD stopped paying his pension since August 2016 and that efforts to get his pension had yet to be fruitful.
“PTAD owes me six months pension arrears which I wrote to complain about and was told it would be paid.
“Every month I wait to see if I will get any alert but there is nothing.
“It is affecting my movement and other sources of revenue because I cannot afford transportation fare to places I want to go,’’ Busari said.
Mrs Esther Echigbue, another retiree, said that she had not been paid for one year and six months and that efforts to find out the reason failed.
Echigbue said that non-payment of the monthly pension had affected her negatively, adding that high cost of goods due to economic recession worsened her situation.
“I have not been able to attend my regular medical check-up due to lack of money since I have not been paid my pension for over a year.
“I have written to the directorate established to tackle issues of removal of names from pension voucher, short payment of pension and non-payment of monthly pension.
“But I have not received any money till now.
“I urge the management of PTAD to look into our plight because pensioners are gradually dying from poverty due to non-payment of our pension,’’ she said.
Also, Mr Jide Akerele, who retired in 2005, said that PTAD excluded his name in the December 2016 and January 2017 pension lists.
Akerele said that he had written to the organisation and made calls to know why he was not receiving his pension but was told that the issue would be looked into.
He expressed the fear that many retirees might not receive their pension this February if the organisation could not resolve the issue.