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Pensioners, whose monthly pensions had been stopped for several months, have accused officials in the pension department of the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation of demanding outrageous amounts as bribes before their names can be included on the payroll.
Some of the pensioners, who spoke with our correspondent on Monday, said they gave the officials the go-ahead to rectify their outstanding pension problems and would pay the officials when they get all their arrears as they had no cash to pay the bribes now.
According to them, the officials are demanding up-front payment of at least N200,000 from each pensioner before they will attend to their problems.
Many of the pensioners said they were broke and afraid of reporting the errant officials because they were unsure of who could help them fight for their rights.
They said all they wanted was for their names to be included on the payroll so that they could start collecting their monthly stipends and accumulated arrears.
The Nigerian Union of Pensioners had submitted a memorandum to the Senate Committee on Pension Matters, listing some of the problems confronting retired workers in the country.
According to the memorandum by the Ogun State chapter, NUP, which was made available to our correspondent, prior to 2002, payment of federal share of pension was the prerogative of the state governments before the Federal Government decided to transfer the Federal Pension Office to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
Since then, the union stated that things had been falling apart for the pensioners because the payment of their gratuities and pensions had not been regular.
It stated, “Since 2002 to date, names of many pensioners have been omitted from the pension payroll and all efforts to place such names on the list have proved abortive.
“The federal pension system has gone haywire such that some are being paid their gratuities without monthly payment of pension, while some others are placed on monthly pension without the payment of gratuity.”
Pensioners, according to the memorandum, have been subjected to a series of punitive screening without any good result.
After the 2010 validation exercise, the NUP said that many pensioners had not been placed on the payroll, while some were paid for about three months after which their stipends were no longer forthcoming.
“Pensioners, who were collecting their pensions through the community banks, were asked to open new accounts with recognised commercial banks in the country. They complied with the new instruction, but unfortunately, such pensioners have not been paid their pensions since 2005,” it stated.
