Uche Usim, Abuja

The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has concluded its two-week pension verification exercise in the North-West with the capturing of 11,335 government retirees. 

The Executive Secretary of PTAD, Mrs Chioma Ejikeme, in a statement said that the exercise commenced on September 23, 2019 and ended on October 4, 2019.

“There were four centres located in Arewa House and Dakhole Angels Multipurpose Centre Kaduna, Marhaba Event Place, Kano, and Hidima Conference Centre, Bodinga Road, Sokoto.

“A total of 11,335 parastatal pensioners were verified. The breakdown of the numbers verified shows Kaduna Centre 1 had the highest number of 4,073 followed by Kaduna Centre 2 with 3, 170 pensioners.  Kano Centre had 2,739 and Sokoto Centre had 1,353.

“In line with PTAD’s tradition, the pensioners were treated with respect and empathy. The exercise was conducted in a conducive environment where Pensioners were also provided with lunch and medical facility to take care of any emergencies.

“The legislators were at the verification centres to monitor the exercise.

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“The Senate Committee Chairman on Establishment and Public Service, Sen. Ibrahim Shekarau was at Kano centre. Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, House Committee Chairman on Pensions was at the Kano and Kaduna Centres. Sen. Mpigi Barinada, Dep. Chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service was at the Kaduna Centre.

“Bamidele Salam, Dep. Chairman, House committee on Pensions was at the Sokoto Centre. They gave PTAD excellent remarks and promised to support the Directorate with necessary appropriation”, she explained.

Ejikeme appreciated members of the National Assembly for their love for the senior citizens and support for PTAD. She promised to continue to work with the National Assembly towards improving the welfare of pensioners. She also thanked the staff for their commitment and the pensioners for their cooperation. She assured that the upcoming verification exercise in the North Central will include all the feedback received during the North West verification exercise.

She revealed that the next phase of the verification exercise has been scheduled for Ilorin, Minna, Jos and Lokoja in the North Central zone from Monday, October 21, 2019.

“Pensioners should note that they need not travel to the state they retired from to be verified. They can be verified in any of the centres in the zone where they currently reside. They do not need to be anxious about being verified as the Directorate has the capacity to verify all pensioners who present themselves for the verification within the period slated for the exercise”, she noted.

The on-going exercise, according to PTAD,  is strictly for parastatal pensioners and does not include Customs, Immigration, Prisons, Civil Service, Police pensioner and others that had already been verified by the Directorate.