Nigerian Airways pensioners hold finance minister hostage demanding the payment of their entitlements

PENSIONERS who worked for the defunct Nigeria Airways held finance minister Zainab Ahmed and her permanent secretary hostage in Abuja yesterday over the non-payment of entitlements owed them over the last 16 years.

Nigeria Airways, the country's one-time national carrier, collapsed in 2003, leaving many of workers jobless. Many of the staff did not receive any of the entitlements they were owed until this year and those who were pensioned off  are yet to collect their entitlements from the government.

Yesterday, the aggrieved former workers said they were asked to come to the finance ministry for verification and eventual payment of their retirement benefits being handled by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) domiciled in the ministry of finance. Many of them said they arrived at the ministry from all over the country for the exercise on Sunday and as Tuesday, nobody had come to attend to them.

As a result of the maltreatment, the workers decided to block the gate and prevent the finance minister and others from leaving the premises. A spokesman for the staff, Comrade Sam Nzene said that they missed out on the first tranche of payment, through no fault of the government but they were then asked to come back for data capturing to enable government pay them.

He lamented that no arrangement has been made for their verification so far. According to Comrade Nzene, they contacted the consultant handling the disbursement of the entitlements known as Jubril on Monday but he refused to come because he has neither been paid nor his contract regularised.

After waiting from Sunday to Tuesday without anybody answering them, the aggrieved pensioners barricaded the Ahmadu Bello Way entrance of the ministry yesterday, thus preventing the minister and others from driving out of the premises. On her way out, the executive secretary of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate intervened to calm the angry workers down to no avail.

Also caught in the blockade were the senior special assistant to the president on National Assembly matters Senator Ita Enang, the commissioner for insurance Mohammed Kari and the director-general of the Debt Management Office. Around 6.45pm Comrade Sam Nzene directed the protesters to proceed to the auditorium, pointing out that the government has agreed to carry out the verification right away bit the protesters divided themselves into two groups, with some proceeding to the auditorium, while others stayed back to sustain the pressure.

On October 15 last year, the federal government started the final  verification and payment of N22.6bn entitlements due to all former staff of the defunct Nigeria Airways. It was to last for one week and hold simultaneously in the three regional hubs of Lagos, Kano and Enugu.