In order to prevent the return of “corruption, another round of harsh treatment, and more untimely death of pensioners,” the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) pensioners under the Federal Parastatals and Private Sector Pensioners Association of Nigeria (FEPPPAN) have pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to kindly permit the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to continue existing as an agency that oversees pension issues of all DBS pensioners.
According to the pensioners’ organization, the creation of PTAD gave retirees in their group a lifeline and fundamentally altered the story of DBS pension management in Nigeria. Inhumane treatment of seniors and their pensions being “fraudulently stolen by government personnel who managed pensions before PTAD came” were also mentioned.
“We don’t want anything close to that again, let alone go back to that era under any circumstances,” FEPPPAN said in a statement jointly signed by its Acting President-General and General Secretary, Babaji Magaji, and Franklin Erinle.
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The union said all pensioners under PTAD payroll have been “traumatised since they received the news of scrapping the agency.”
“Spare PTAD because the services it renders are saving and prolonging the lives of pensioners, thereby delivering benefits of good governance to the retirees,” the union begged President Tinubu.
The statement said: “What happened to pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) before the creation of PTAD was purely ‘man’s inhumanity to man.’ It was the era when some pensioners died either during verification exercises or on their way home after the exercise. That was because of the harsh treatment they were subjected to. Many of those charged with the responsibility of paying pensions then fed themselves fat with pension funds and starved the pensioners. This resulted in irregular payments of monthly pensions and other benefits of the pensioners. We urge Mr. President not to send us back to the ugly past…”
