By Monsuru Olowoopejo

Names of  hundreds of retired and former workers of the defunct Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, NITEL and its subsidiary, Mobile Telecommunications Limited, MTEL, were allegedly missing from list of pensioners compiled by the Federal Government for payment of gratuities which had been on hold since 2006.

The pensioners, in the South-West region, discovered their names were not included among the pensioners approved by government to receive gratuities when they visited the Ikeja and Ketu venues of ongoing verification exercise being conducted by Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, PTAD, in Lagos State.

According to the pensioners who arrived in Lagos from their various states in the South-West, their names were on the list in 2010 when the immediate past government, paid N17billion as gratuities and pensions to workers and retirees of the defunct parastatal.

It will be recalled that the Federal Government through the National Council on Privatisation initially approved payment of N8 billion out of the outstanding N17billion of the five-year pension buy-out for the workers and pensioners of NITEL and MTel.

The pensioners stressed that later, the balance of N9billion was obtained from the issuance of bonds by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Debt Management Office and they were paid.

Speaking to Vanguard, Mrs. Adejoke Adetona, whose name was also missing, explained that the first tranche was paid to them at the National Theatre, Orile-Iganmu and they received the second in Lagos Island same year.

She said: “I do not know why after I was captured earlier; but now, my name is missing from the list used for the verification exercise. I do not understand the reason for this action.”

Adetona, now a petty trader, insisted that all they were asked was to write to Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation for their names to be included in the list.

Another retiree whose  name was missing, Mr. Ajala Fatai, lamented that after serving the country meritoriously and waiting for years to receive his gratuity, his name was omitted from the list approved for verification.

Fatai, however, urged the Federal Government to include his name and others, whose names were missing, to the list of pensioners expected to receive gratuities after 12 years of waiting.

Lamenting what they have been going through since, a retiree, who identified himself as Pa Adedoyin, said: “Some could not cope and they died. We have broken marriages now because our wives have become other men’s wives.”

Another retiree, Pa Abiodun Waliu, said that many of his colleagues had  passed on to the great beyond when they could not cope with the financial demands at home anymore.

Waliu, who retired from Kogi State NITEL office, lamented that over 10 of his colleagues had passed on while waiting for the Federal Government to pay their gratuities.

He said: “It is not easy feeding because we had expected that our gratuity would be paid for us to venture into other sectors and contribute our quota to Nigeria’s development. But we did not get that.

“And now, many of us are old and cannot do much for the country. It is pathetic that we served the country diligently but when we needed the country to assist us, she was not there for us.

It is sad. And stylishly, we are regretting serving the country with our youthful age.”