FG to settle Police Pensions arrears
(Nigeria )
The Federal Government has concluded plans to clear the mess of corruption in
the Police pension system and pay all outstanding arrears of gratuity, pension
and entitlements including the 33 percent increment of former officers and men
of the force.
The first step to this arrangement will commence between
December 8 and 18, 2014 when the Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate, PTAD,
headed by Ms. Nellie Mayshak, will conduct what has been described as the last
biometric verification of policemen who retired on or before June 30, 2007.
Family members and next of kin of deceased policemen whose
final entitlements have not been settled were also invited to the venues of
first phase of the exercise which will take place in the six police zonal
formations in the northern parts of the country.
The zones falling into the first phase are 1, 3, 4, 7, 10
and 12 with verification venues at Kano , Kaduna , Gombe, Makurdi,
Jos and Bauchi.
The arrears will be paid along with December pension but
that inadequate logistics will push the verification for ex-policemen based in
the south to early next year when their own arrears will also be paid
immediately after.
Pension offices for the civil service, police, customs,
immigration and prisons department outside the contributory pension scheme were
merged in November 2013 to form PTAD with Ms. Nellie Mayshak as Director
General.
The Pension Reform Act 2014 has now also merged all other
treasury funded pension board of trustees like that of Nigeria Television Authority,
NTA; Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria , FRCN; Nigerian Postal
Service, NIPOST; Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC and former National Electric
Power Authority, NEPA.
An official told PRNigeria that the biometric verification
exercise will be a one off event as a comprehensive electronic data base was
being compiled to remove an instance whereby “old retired officers most of whom
did not actually have a good life during service” will be repeatedly subjected
to the indignity of queuing up every time.
“Nigerian policemen have suffered for so long that their
children are the most disadvantaged among public officials in the country and
we must find a way to remove this trend”, Mayshak was quoted as saying when
discussing this new arrangement.
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