By GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

BENIN—NO fewer than 4,000 Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, pensioners across the country have lamented the non-payment of their four months pension arrears and gratuities estimated at N19 billion by Federal Government.

The pensioners, in a statement in Benin, Edo State, by the Secretary, PHCN Pensioners Ugbowo District, Mr. Monday Adodo, urged the Federal Government to stop playing the ostrich with their plight, including staff who retired in April and May 2013.

They appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to set up a panel of enquiry to ascertain the reasons for the delay.
The statement described the attitude of the Managing Director of Nigerian Electricity Management Company, NELMCO, Dr. Samuel Aigbogun, to their plight as intolerable.
Aigbogun had said, during the June 23 meeting with the pensioners, that “no fund has been released to him to effect the four months pensioners’ payment.”

The statement said: “Who is holding the gratuity fund since the Minister of Power had told stakeholders that the money has been released over eight months ago?”
The pensioners appealed to the President to intervene and save the affected retired staff and their families and dependents from hunger and untold hardship they are currently experiencing.