Pensioners vow to sue FG if it scraps PTAD

The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has threatened to drag the Federal Government to court if it unilaterally scraps the Pension Transitional Arrangements Directorate (PTAD) without the approval of the National Assembly.

This followed reports that the federal government may scrap PTAD as part of the implementation of the Oronsaye report which recommended merger of some agencies.

The union insisted that scrapping of PTAD would amount to taking pensioners back to Egypt “where our pensions and gratuities will be at the whims and caprices of larcenous civil servants.”

According to the body, 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 of all pensioners.

The South West chapter of the NUP made the call in a communique released on Thursday at the end of the meeting of state chairmen, secretaries and leaders of the union, held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The South West spokesman of the NUP, Dr. Olusegun Abatan, who addressed newsmen, warned that the scrapping would lead to the reinstitution of corruption, another round of harsh treatment and more untimely death of pensioners.

Abatan said PTAD had ensured seamless and prompt payment of pensions and gratuities, expressing the fear that scrapping it might spell doom for pensioners.

He urged President Bola Tinubu not to be misinformed by “rapacious civil servants”, insisting that PTAD is an act of law and “any step taken to unilaterally scrap it without the imprimatur of the National Assembly is a violation of the law.”

Abatan said, “The South West NUP may go to court if PTAD is unilaterally scrapped because it will amount to violation of the law of the land and to that effect null and void and of no effect.

“The South West decries 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 on queues or travelling from all over the federation to Abuja before our entitlements are paid.”

He lamented the federal government’s failure to pay the agreed N25,000 palliative fund to pensioners to ease economic hardship occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy.

“In the MoU between the labour and the 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 too unbearable and choking for pensioners”, Abatan said.