Lemu, Sardauna’s aide, gets pension after 6 years

The federal government has finally verified and added Alhaji Hassan Lemu, the Principal Private Secretary to the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, to its pension payroll after six years of stoppage of his statutory pension benefit.

Daily Trust had on January 20, this year, broke the news of Lemu’s ordeal since his pension was stopped in July 2010, a development that prompted the mobile verification unit of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to track and verify him.

A statement by the PTAD’s Head of Corporate Communications, Theodora Amechi, indicated that Lemu’s backlog of pensions had been cleared.

“Prior to your publication, Alhaji Lemu had been scheduled for mobile verification due to his physical and health challenges,” Amechi stated in reaction to our previous publication. “PTAD has since conducted a mobile verification on the pensioner,” she added.

She confirmed that PTAD had paid Lmu’s arrears up to February 2017 and that he is currently back on federal government’s payroll.

The 86-year-old joined the public service as Third Class Clerk at the Northern Nigeria Secretariat in February 1949 and rose through the ladder before exiting the scene as permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance, Sokoto in September 1974.

His pension was paid through the Unity Bank account with a transaction titled Federal Pension Monthly Salary, paid through the office of Head of Service of the Federation.

However, Lemu’s son, Malam Salihu Hassan Lemu, told Daily Trust about his father’s stopped pension, which lead to the story and the eventual rectification.