Activities were crippled at the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, as retirees of the defunct NITEL and MTEL staged protests over un̈paid 35 months pensions and their exclusion from N32,000 Presidential approval for all pensioners, among other benefits.
The senior citizens were received by an official in the Permanent Secretary’s office, at the Finance Ministry, who assured them of prompt attention to their demands.
For 18 years Mama Philomina Ujaga has joined protests of fellow retirees of the defunct NITEL/MTEL to push for payments of owed entitlements and pension increments allowances.
Philomina’s story is not different from that of Okey Ifepe and Yusuf Ishola who too have been severally on the streets in protest of poor treatment of retirees of the Nigerian public sector.
After protesting for hours this Tuesday, an official from the office of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Shehu Garba emerged to receive the retirees’ petition letter and again gives another promise to solve their problems.
Meanwhile, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), had told a group of pensioners that the last monies released by the Federal government also covers NITEL and Mtel pensioners.
In the meantime, the pensioners will have to keep hope alive amidst the current harsh economic climate in the country.
(Editor: Ken Eseni)
