Defunct NEPA , PHCN pensioners protest, demand payment of 22- yr entitlements

PENSIONERS of the defunct National Electric Power Authority ( NEPA) and Power Holding Company of Nigeria ( PHCN) have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to offset their 22- year entitlements held by management of the Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company ( NELMCO), a non- pension fund administrator, and Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate ( PTAD).

During a peaceful protest in Lagos, yesterday, the senior citizens, under the aegis of Concerned NEPA/ PHCN pensioners, said despite several attempts and presentations to the PT AD management to pay the arrears, their pleas fell on deaf ears, alleging that the directorate was emplo ying deceptions and manipulations.

Reliving their ordeals, the pensioners, who brandished placards with various inscriptions, including “NELMCO/ PTAD/ NSIWC... En ough of your white lies. Release our money to us now. It is our rights not y ours” and “Save our souls President Muhammadu Buhari, PTAD and cohorts are killing our pensioners,” sought immediate payment of all accrued benefits of 2020 retirees, consisting gratuity and monthly pension shortfall of 42 per cent for 22 years.

The group, in statement by Dunmoye Oladimeji and Julius Ayodeji, said all was going well until PTAD took over in 2014 after the final unbundling of NEPA/ PHCN in 2013.

They said in a petition to the Nigerian leader in October 2021, the pensioners found out that the claims had already been made by government in the Appropriation Acts of 2017 to 2022, “but the PTAD failed to pay us till date.”

Wondering why the agency has allegedly stopped paying their entitlements, the pensioners claimed that it was “reason beyond selfish and fraudulent manipulation for self- enrichment despite the calls for cessation of corruption in the country.”

They appealed to the President to instruct the Ministry of Finance to stop disbursement of their budgetary allocations through NELMCO, but to rather route it directly to PTAD for ease of administration.

PHOTO: NAN Former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma- Egba ( left); erstwhile Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission, Nsima Ekere; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade; his deputy, Ivara Esu and Minister of State for Power, Jeddy Agba, during Osinbajo’s consultative visit to Calabar… yesterday.