The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) at the weekend stated that it had paid N846,146,987.71 to 2,730 pensioners of the Civil Service Pension Department as accrued arrears and gratuity owed them over the past years.
The agency made this disclosure in a statement signed by its Head, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Olugbenga Ajayi, on Friday.
According to the spokesman, the arrears were paid to three categories of pensioners, namely the previously verified pensioners not on the payroll, those who did not receive their gratuity on retirement, and those whose payments failed on the GIFMIS platform.
He stated that the acting Executive Secretary of the Directorate, Mr. Sulayman Shelleng, said the payment of accrued arrears and gratuities owed pensioners would be sustained until all accrued arrears were paid.
Shelleng assured other pensioners, who were yet to receive their arrears, to be patient as the Directorate was working tirelessly to ensure that all outstanding arrears of pensions and gratuity are paid soon and assured DBS pensioners of the Directorate’s continued strive to ensure that their welfare is promoted, the statement concluded.
Available data on unpaid arrears and gratuities of pensioners at federal, state and local governments across the country showed that the retirees were being owed billions of Naira, leaving millions of them to be suffering in their post-retirement years.
For instance, a news report by Vanguard newspapers in June this year indicated that 34 governors were leaving a huge burden of unpaid gratuities, while 27 could not pay pension arrears to retirees.
The news medium quoted the Ondo state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Victor Amoko, as saying that was only the special intervention by the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, with the release of N300 million that helped offset part of the huge outstanding arrears of gratuities being owed retirees in the state from 2011 to 2023.
The news report further indicated that though all the six state governments in the South-South zone were paying monthly salaries to workers but that only Akwa-Ibom State was paying gratuities and pensions to retired workers.
