FG assures ex-Nigerian Airways staff of payment of entitlements

The Federal Government has assured ex-workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways that it is committed to the payment of their entitlements after they are audited.

Mr Mohammed Dikwa, the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, said this while inspecting Lagos and Kano centres where the exercise was holding simultaneously.

A statement by Mr Olajide Oshundun, the Deputy Director, Information, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja.

Represented by Mr Izerebu John, Deputy Director, Procurement Dikwa said that the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) had commenced a week-long mop up verification for the ex-workers who were not audited during the previous exercise.

He added that the exercise was meant to ensure that all eligible beneficiaries were audited and paid off their entitlements to ensure that all former workers of the defunct airways got their benefits.

He, however, advised them to cooperate with the verifiers and ensure that they provided all the documents required for the exercise.

The statement recalled that Nigeria Airways was liquidated in 2004, without the almost 6,000 workers being paid any entitlements.

However, following continued agitations by the workers for their entitlements, President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 approved that all audited staff of the organisation should be paid 50 per cent of their severance entitlements.

​Comrade Segun Adeleke, the Secretary-General, Nigeria Airways Pensioners Union, while thanking the president for the bold and commendable step, said his members would ever remain grateful to him for coming to their rescue.

He said that the ex-workers had lost hope of receiving anything from the government.

Comrade Mohammed Adamu, ​National Vice Chairman of the Union (North) said that only about 500 of the ex-Airways workers would be audited in the mop up.

This, he said was because most of the eligible workers had been audited and paid 50 per cent of their severance package after the earlier exercise in September, 2018.

It was reported that the ministry had conducted a similar exercise in the six geo-political zones in September 2018.