NJC moves to sanitize pension administration of judicial workers

The National Judicial Council, NJC, has embarked on a nationwide enrolment exercise for retirees of the federal judiciary.

The exercise was to deploy a robust platform to detect and do away with ghost pensioners and ensure prompt payment of monthly pension, as well as clear outstanding arrears of pension being owed.

Speaking to newsmen in Kano on Monday, the Executive Secretary of the NJC, Ahmed Saleh said the exercise was to sanitize the pension administration of the judicial workers in order to better their lives after spending more than three decades while serving the nation.

According to him, the pension administration in Nigeria was marred by irregularities before the advent of the 2004 pension Act.

He added that even when the administration of pension of the federal judicial workers was transferred to the NJC, there were still some challenges being faced.

To this end, he revealed that when he came on board in 2017, after the upgrade of the pension administration unit of the federal judiciary by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Ononghen, he made pension as his top priority.

Mr Saleh added that operational and structural frameworks had since been put in place to ensure that the pension administration of the ex-judicial workers is equally upgraded.

He said the new technology-driven pension administration would help the council to fish out ghost pensioners and ensure prompt payment of the retirees entitlements.

“This employment of technology in the pension administration of the judicial workers is one of my top priorities when I assumed office in 2017.

“I am aware of the irregularities bedevilling the pension administration before the advent of 2004 pension Act. This is why I made it a priority to sanitize the administration in order to better the life of ex-judicial workers for serving the nation.

“This technology-driven pension administration would help us fish out ghost pensioners and would make the process effective and efficient,” he said

Mr Saleh also noted that the employment of the data-capturing process would help record accurate and reliable data of the pensioners.

DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the exercise was ongoing nationwide, with Kano zone comprised of Kaduna, Katsina and Jigawa States.