By Binta Shama Abuja
Frustrated by the non-payment of their entitlements in the last 10 years, members of the RetiredStaff Association of the NNPC, have called on Acting President Yemi Osibajo to come to their rescue, ensure payment, save their lives and end the suff erings of those still managing to survive. Vice-Chairman, Lagos State branch of the association, Femi Johnson, who made the call in statement yesterday in Abuja, said life had been unbearable for most of the 1,200 NNPC pensioners in Lagos and about 12,000 members nationwide as their meager entitlements had not been paid for over a decade. Earlier in the month, the federal government approved the release of N2.7 trillion for the payment of outstanding debts which it owed contractors, pensioners and oil marketers over the last 20 years.
Making the declaration recently Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said “the Federal Executive Council approved the Ministry of Finance’s proposed validation process to ensure that benefi ciaries were paid through the issuance of liquid promissory notes of 10-year tenure.” Th e minister said government was determined to resolve a number of inherited and long outstanding Federal Government’s obligations to contractors, state governments and employees. Reacting to the approval to pay contractors and oil marketers, NNPC retirees enjoined the Federal Government to also put former employees of the state-run oil company into consideration so as to prevent further premature deaths. Johnson expressed regret that many had died in frustration while those still living were virtually becoming walking corpses.
