South-West Pensioners Kick Against Scrapping of PTAD, Says it will lead to reinstitution of corruption
The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has said that scrapping the Pension Transitional Arrangements Directorate (PTAD) will lead to the reinstitution of corruption, harsh treatment, and the untimely death of pensioners.
It also threatened to sue the federal government if it unilaterally scrapped the Pension Transitional Arrangements Directorate (PTAD) without the approval of the National Assembly.
The Union, in a communiqué issued at the end of its zonal meeting held in Abeokuta on Thursday, insisted that the Oronsaye report did not recommend the scrapping of PTAD and urged the federal government to allow PTAD to continue to exist as an agency that oversees pension issues for all pensioners.
The SouthWest Public Relations Officer (PRO) of NUP, Dr. Olusegun Abatan, while reading the communiqué, said that PTAD has ensured seamless and prompt payment of pensions and gratuities, expressing the fear that scrapping it may spell doom for pensioners.
“The SouthWest NUP may go to court if PTAD is unilaterally scrapped because it will amount to a violation of the law of the land and, to that effect, null and void and of no effect.
“The South West decries the scrapping of PTAD and taking pensioners back to Egypt, where our pensions and gratuities will be at the whims and caprices of larcenous civil servants.
“We do not want to go back to the era where our members will be dying in queues or travelling from all over the Federation to Abuja before our entitlements are paid,” Abatan said.
He lamented the federal government’s failure to pay the agreed-upon N25,000 palliative fund to pensioners to ease the economic hardship occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidies.
“In the MOU between the Labour Party and government in October 2023, the government promised to give N25,000 to pensioners. I regret to inform you that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government has not fulfilled that promise. We appeal to the government to do the needful, particularly as the firmament is becoming unbearable and choking for pensioners,” Abatan said.
