Over 10,000 retirees decry non-payment of 35 months arrears, call out PTAD

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OVER 10, 000 retired workers of the defunct Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm, MTEL, under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS), have decried what they describe as years of injustice, neglect, and exclusion from pension benefits accorded to their counterparts in other defunct government agencies.

Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, the aggrieved pensioners, under the umbrella of the Progressive NITEL-MTEL Pensioners Forum, made a passionate appeal to the Federal Government, demanding the immediate payment of their 35 months of outstanding pension arrears and full inclusion in approved pension increments.

Led by its spokesperson, Auston Ifedinezi, the group said: “We, the retired workers of NITEL-MTEL under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS), are gathered today to publicly express our deep pain and frustration over the ongoing injustices we face, even after decades of dedicated service to our country,”

The pensioners noted that despite being under the same DBS system as other federal pensioners, they were being unfairly excluded from critical entitlements.

“We are the only defunct agency yet to be fully paid. All other defunct agencies have been fully paid while we are still being owed 35 months’ arrears, which is nearly 3 years of pension payments, without any communication on when these arrears will be settled,” the group said.

They further accused the government of neglecting them in the recent N32,000 monthly pension increase.

They added that they have also been excluded from the 20 percent and 28 percent consequential pension adjustments announced by the federal government following the 2019 minimum wage increase.

“NITEL-MTEL was excluded, even though all other DBS pensioners received these Adjustments announced following the 2019 minimum wage increase,” they said.