Pensioners of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Ibadan chapter, have called on the Federal Government to effect the immediate payment of the three per cent increment of their pension arrears accrued over the last 30 months.
The affected pensioners, in a statement made available to Saturday Tribune, said the call became imperative in view of the fact that votes for the payment of the pension arrears were approved in the 2016 fiscal year, coming to an end in about one week.
Chairman of FRCN Pensioners Association (FRANPA), Ibadan Branch, Mr Sola Ogunmola, in the statement, said President Muhammadu Buhari had, during the World Pension Summit, held in Abuja, assured that his administration would not owe pensioners as all their entitlements would be settled.
He said the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, had declared publicly, last March, that more than N150 billion had been appropriated for the settlement of all forms of pension arrears, including the 33 per cent increment and entitlements of deceased pensioners.
He further said the statement by the Finance Minister was corroborated by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Department (PTAD), which he said gave particular attention to the payment of the 33 per cent pension arrears.
“We were tempted to believe these assurances, especially coming from principal agents of a government which prides itself in integrity, credibility and transparency. However, the only good thing that has since happened to us was the payment in August, this year, of only 12 months out of the 42 months arrears.
“On the contrary however, the shocking development that came after the assurance was the payment of the balance of all the outstanding arrears of 33 per cent to the military as well as paramilitary pensioners in full.
“PTAD later paid another 12-month arrears to civil service pensioners, thus leaving those in the parastatals to lick their wounds, while waiting in vain for the moment”, Ogunmola said.
Describing the preferential treatment as selective and malicious, he said when President Buhari received in audience the Director General of PTAD, Mrs Sharon Ikpeazu, in Abuja, he merely gave a verbal order urging PTAD to quickly conclude the verification exercise of federal pensioners nationwide.
“What better days President Buhari often promised us when an 80-year-old pensioner whose present is very bleak and not guaranteed? Is it not who survives today that will live to enjoy better days ahead?”, he asked, noting that many of his colleagues had died from neglect.