Good news: Edo government set to pay arrears of batch 40 pensioners from Jan 24

macfranc007 January 22, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Nurudeen Lawal

- The Edo state government has opted to be paying its backlog of pension arrears in batches

- The government said it will commence the payment of pension arrears to the pensioners in ‘batch 40’

- The affected pensioners are to go for verification between Monday, January 22 and Wednesday, January 24

The Edo state government has said that it will commence the payment of pension arrears of retirees in ‘batch 40’ on Wednesday, January 24.

The government announced this in a statement signed by the permanent secretary and chairman, Pensions Bureau, I.D. Juwobor, Channels TV reports.

Juwobor explained that the announcement was in continuation of the phased payment of pension arrears by the state government.

The pensioners in batch 40 have been asked to be present for physical and documentary verification from Monday, January 22 to Wednesday, January 24, at the Imaguero School Hall in Benin city, the state capital.

The exercise will also afford pensioners in batches 37, 38 and 39, who missed previous verification exercises, the opportunity to be screened and get their records taken to facilitate payment of their arrears.

The statement read in part: “Affected pensioners are advised to check the list of pensioners in the batches at the office of the Head of Service on January 22 and 23, 2018.

“They are to come to the venue of the verification exercise with the following: pension authority, retirement letter, letter of first appointment, pension identity card, biometric slip and bank details including bank name and account number.”

Juwobor said that after the completion of the verification exercise, outstanding pension arrears would be credited to each pensioner’s account without delay.

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The state government had opted to be paying the pensions in phases after a reported backlog of about N10billion.

Imaguero said the phased payment of the arrears has reduced the arrears by about N6billion, providing succour to pensioners whose arrears accrued from 1996 to 2000.

NAIJ.com previously reported that 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, January 21, 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.

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