Former Lagos CJ, Other Pensioners Commend NJC for Easy Data Capturing

A former Chief Judge of Lagos State, Hon. Justice Inumidun Akande, alongside other retirees of the National Judicial Council (NJC), have commended the Council for the successful capturing of their biometric data.

Justice Akande gave this commendation, during a two-day exercise for the capturing of the biometrics of retired Judges and other former judicial workers in the State, which ended last Saturday.

The former Chief Judge said the yearly capturing of pensioners biometrics by the Council, ensured that pensions were paid on time, and eliminates the possibility of ghost pensioners.

“They’ve been paying our pension from time to time, and they even pay faster than Lagos State. I retired as the Chief Judge of Lagos State in year 2012, and I have been participating in data capturing since then, and my pension has always been on time. I’m giving them a very good mark”, she said.

Justice Akande also commended the State Government, for visiting pensioners who were to sick or weak to come to the venue of the capturing, in their homes, to take their biometrics.

A retired Assistant Chief Magistrate, Alao Abiodun, however, said more machines should be provided for the exercise in the future, for easier capturing of retirees’ biometrics.

“I retired in 2003, and I’ve been participating in this for long. They don’t owe me. If they want to do all these things next time, they should provide two machines. In Lagos State, we have Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and StateHigh Court, and we are many in Lagos, and it will take a long period of time, before they can attend to everyone with one machine”, he said.

Also speaking at the verification exercise, NJC Secetary General, Ahmed Gambo Saleh, disclosed that the Council has settled its backlog of pension arrears, running into N2.9 billion.

Saleh pointed out that, though the NJC inherited N2.9 billion debt when it took over in 2007, so far, it has been able to settle 99% of it.

"The NJC, took over the administration of pension for retired judiciary officers, otherwise known as the defined benefit scheme in the year 2007.

"The exercise is being handled by the office of the Head of Service of the Federation.

"By coming into force with the Pension and Administration Judicial Officers Act 2007, the NJC was saddled with the responsibility of administrating same.

"In 2013, the Election Pension Commission also conspired the administration of accrued benefits of retired Federal judiciary staff, to the NJC.

"These two developments forced a number of challenges onto the Council. In the sense that, apart from taking over the administration of the pension, the Council also inherited a huge sum of money in terms of arrears, for the entire judicial officers and Federal judiciary staff to the the tune of N2.9 billion.

"It is however, gratifying today, for me to say that the Council has so far settled 99% of its arrears. Not only that, the Council is also up-to-date in terms of monthly pension to all judiciary pensioners; having paid the pension for the month of October, just some few days ago”, Saleh said.

"It is also pertinent to mention that, as of today, our retired Federal judiciary officers and staff received their gratuities not a minute later than the day of their retirements”, Saleh added.

He also pointed out that, the NJC has also been able to curb the menace of ghost pensioners in the scheme, by ensuring that pensioners sign an indemity bond.