‘We Don’t Want To Return To Era Of Dying In Queues’

The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has threatened to sue the Federal government over its move to eliminate the Pension Transitional Arrangements Directorate (PTAD) without seeking legislative endorsement.

Naija News reports that Southwest pensioners articulated their sentiments after convening on Thursday in a communique released to journalists in Abeokuta on Friday.

According to the Oronsaye report, there were 541 parastatals, commissions, and agencies, with suggestions to decrease 263 to 161, abolish 38, and merge 52 for efficiency.

Furthermore, the report proposed the elimination of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) and transferring its duties to the Federal Ministry of Finance.

However, in the senior citizens’ report, the union emphasized that the Oronsaye report did not propose the abolishment of PTAD and called on the Federal government to permit PTAD to remain an agency.

NUP’s South-West Public Relations Officer (PRO), Dr. Olusegun Abatan, emphasized in the communique the dangers of scrapping PTAD, warning of a resurgence in corruption and increased suffering among pensioners, which could result in more untimely deaths.

Abatan pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to disregard misinformation from “self-serving civil servants” and reaffirmed the legality of the PTAD.

He also expressed dissatisfaction with the Federal government’s failure to deliver the agreed N25,000 palliative fund to pensioners, which was intended to alleviate the economic challenges caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.

The Southwest spokesman 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 in queues or travelling from all over the Federation to Abuja before our entitlements are paid.“