Pensioners of the former NITEL/MTEL have commended Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate for taking steps to clear their retirements and pension benefits.
Some of the pensioners, who spoke to newsmen in Gombe on Wednesday at the venue of the verification, said they had waited for too long for their retirement benefits and already lost hope.
Samuel Onye said he lost hope of being paid and suddenly PTAD stepped in.
Onye said: “The exercise started on Monday, and I was verified today; we the pensioners are commending the Executive secretary Sharon Ekeazor.
“The way in which the exercise is being conducted is good because it was orderly; food is even served to us.
“My expectation is immediately after the verification I will get my benefits.”
Malam Adamu Abubakar also said he retired since 2006 and had not gotten his benefits.
Abubakar said: “It is God that has been sustaining us all this while; I am commending PTAD for taking steps to pay us.
“We hope we will get our benefits as soon as possible.”
Segun Oke, in charge of NTEL/MTEL pensioners help desk, said the challenges they faced included the pensioners who forgot their date of first appointment and promotions.
Oke said: “We are here attending to them; whosoever comes with an issue we will provide the information needed.”
He said the exercise was being conducted in an orderly manner, expressing the hope that the pensioners would get their benefits as soon as possible.
Also, Hajiya Zainab Haruna, Permanent Secretary, Gombe State Pension Bureau who was at the venue of the exercise, commended PTAD for organising the exercise in an orderly manner.
Haruna said: “I am happy with how pensioners responded to the exercise.
“I was here on Monday and today; pensioners have been cooperative.”
She expressed the hope that at the end of the verification, the pensioners would get their benefits to reduce tension over the entitlement.
Meanwhile, PTAD management on Wednesday said the directives to take responsibility of privatized enterprises, including NITEL/MTEL was communicated through an approval letter received from the Federal Ministry of Finance in February 2017.
According to the document, obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria, most of the defunct agencies including were at one time commercialised or privatised by the Bureau of Public Enterprises as part of government’s economic reform.
It further stated that the documents required from pensioners were letters of first appointment, confirmation, promotion and retirement.
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