Over 25,000 pensioners not on FG payroll

More than 25,000 pensioners are still excluded from the Federal Government’s payroll of retirees, according to the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP).

Lagos Chapter Chairman of NUP, Joseph Dele, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday that the affected pensioners were not among over 300,000 paid under Defined Benefits Scheme and Contributory Pension Scheme.

The NUP urged federal government to mandate the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to conduct verification exercise for the affected pensioners to enable them get gratuities for their long years of service.

He described allegations that officials of the union were involved in pension fund scam as an excuse not to pay NUP members excluded from the payroll system.

“The Attorney General of the Federation, , alleged that the pension fraud was perpetrated by public officials with the active connivance of NUP, Association of Federal Public Service Retirees, among others.

“NUP did not collude with anyone to list 16,238 ghost pensioners to siphon N839 million to fictitious pensioners monthly.

“Over 25,000 and not 16,238 members were still excluded on the payroll.

“They are not fictitious pensioners as claimed by the AGF and as we speak they are not on federal government payroll,” he said.

Dele explained that only one per cent of monthly pensioners’ fund was remitted to the NUP secretariat for maintainance and other ad-hocs services.