Pensioners at the event.
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Chuks Udo Okonta
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) hopes to verify 5,000 pensioners in an ongoing exercise that started yesterday Monday and will end by Friday this week.
According to the Assistant Director, Pension Admin, PTAD, Jibrin Idris, the exercise is presently going on in Lagos; Abuja and Delta State. He noted that the verification is targeted at pensioners of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and Delta Steel Company (DSC) adding that so far they had verified about 350 pensioners since yesterday and expecting more to come up.
He said the excess of the verification is to identify genuined retirees of these two agencies, which are FHA and DSC, stressing that in the last verification, pensioners of NICON Insurance; New Nigeria Newspapers and Nigeria Reinsurance were verified.
Pensioners at the event
He said those that missed the last exercise are accommodated for verification.
“The government we had in the past privatized a lot of agencies so this year the federal government gave approval to PTAD to take over the pension liabilities of some of these agencies. We are taking them in phase, we start with Nigeria Reinsurance and Nicon insurance. But now we are verifying DSC,” he added.
He posited that after the verifications the commission will review the captured data to identify genuine pensioners and compute it in their system along side with what they are entitled to before final payment is made
He said the turnout in Lagos for the exercise was not impressive, but was optimistic that more people would show up before the end of the exercise.
On how the pensioners were contacted, he said the pensioners were contacted through their various agencies, association, SMS and advert placement.
He said those that have challenges can alert PTAD, so that it can send a team of mobile communication expert to go and verifily them in their homes.
Idris noted that an impersonator was today nabbed and handed over to security agents at the venue. According to him, the young came to the venue with a document stating his date of birth to be 1991 and his retirement year 1982.
Speaking on the arrest some Police who were at the venue but did not want to be named, said the impersonator was handed over to officers of Department of State Service (DSS) for further interrogations.
Pensioners at the event
A pensioner Yahaya Olaruwaju, who retired from the Federal Housing Authority, commended PTAD for the treatment meted on the pensioners. He was elated especially over the free meal offered to the pensioners.
According to him, he came to the venue with money to buy food, but was amassed when they were presented a sumptuous meal. He called on PTAD to sustain the good work, whilst advising workers to put in their best in service and plan towards retirement.
