By Tony Obiechina, ABUJA
Scores of aggrieved pensioners of the defunct Nigeria Airways on Tuesday prevented the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed and other workers of the ministry from leaving the premises after closure from work.
Those affected by the pensioners action include, Mr Ita Enang, Buhari’s SA on National Assembly Matters; Ms Patience Oniha, DG, DMO; PITAD DG, Sharon Ikeazor among others.
The pensioners in their large numbers who were protesting the non payment of their entitlements at about 5.pm blocked the main entrance of the ministry thereby holding the minister and others to ransom.
Prompt News Online, learnt that the pensioners including some of their dependants were invited to Abuja from other parts of the country for final verification before payment.
It was further leant that on getting to Abuja the verification exercise which was to commence on Monday could not be perfected even on Tuesday thereby leaving majority of them passing the night on the premises of the ministry.
The Federal Government in September last year approved N22.6 billion to enable the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) for payment of the pensioners’ entitlements.
While some of them had already been paid, the remaining those who had issues with their verification were invited to Abuja.
Speaking to journalists on the development, the National Chairman of National Association of Pensioners (Nigeria Airways Branch), Mr Sam Nzene, said 50% of the affected pensioners were paid in November last year.
He lamented that the ministry officials refused to attend to the remaining pensioners after inviting them to Abuja.
“To my displeasure, they were refused entry into the premises of the ministry. No plan for the verification exercise”, he said.
