FG Assures Ex-Nigerian Airways Staff of Payment of Their Entitlements

Federal Government has assured ex-workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways that they will be paid their entitlements after their verification exercise.

The above statement is credited to Mr Mohammed Dikwa, the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, and it was made during the inspection of the Lagos and Kano centres where the exercise was held simultaneously.

Represented by Mr Izerebu John, Deputy Director, Procurement, Dikwa said that the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) had commenced a week-long mop up verification for the ex-workers who were not audited during the previous exercise.

He added that the exercise was meant to ensure that all eligible beneficiaries were audited and paid off their entitlements to ensure that all former workers of the defunct airways got their benefits.

He, however, advised them to cooperate with the verifiers and ensure that they provided all the documents required for the exercise.

The statement recalled that Nigeria Airways was liquidated in 2004, without the almost 6,000 workers being paid any entitlements.

However, following continued agitations by the workers for their entitlements, President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 approved that all audited staff of the organisation should be paid 50% of their severance entitlements.

​Comrade Segun Adeleke, the Secretary-General, Nigeria Airways Pensioners Union, while thanking the president for the bold and commendable step, said his members would ever remain grateful to him for coming to their rescue.

He said that the ex-workers had lost hope of receiving anything from the government.

Comrade Mohammed Adamu, ​National Vice Chairman of the Union (North) said that only about 500 of the ex-Airways workers would be audited in the mop-up.

This, he said was because most of the eligible workers had been audited and paid 50% of their severance package after the earlier exercise in September 2018.

The ministry had conducted a similar exercise in the six geo-political zones in September 2018.