The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, PTAD, has warned federal pensioners to be wary of some people going around and using its name to dupe some of them.
The Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr Chioma Ejikeme, who gave the warning in Lokoja on Tuesday said that the organisation had not authorised any individual or group to collect money for its services.
She stated that those asking them to pay certain percentage of their gratuity to facilitate its final payment were doing so without the knowledge and approval PITAD.
Mrs Ejikeme, who was in Lokoja to monitor ongoing verification of of federal pensioners under direct benefit pension scheme said that ” PITAD does not collect money for the verification exercise”.
“Beware of scammers. They will take your money and cannot do anything to help you. If we are owing you gratuity, we will compute all your entitlements and pay to you
directly and not through third party,” she said.
She said that the verification exercise was initiated to get correct data base of pensioners who retired from parastatals and agencies of the Federal Government.
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The Executive Secretary said that having an up-to-date data base of retirees will facilitate easy computations of their entitlements, including monthly pensions.
She gave assured that all eligible pensioners will be verified, saying that those of them that could not appear at the venue due to ill health or old age will be verified in their houses by officials of PITAD.
Ejikeme , also said that the exercise will be the last group verification exercise for pensioners as the organisation was concluding arrangements to introduce ” I am alive programme ” in its place.
Under the “I am alive programme”, she said, pensioners would only be required to occasionally appear at their banks for online verification once in two years at their own convenience.
She also disclosed that that PITAD was working with relevant agencies to enroll the pensioners in the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, to ensure that they enjoy quality healthcare services.
Mrs Ejikeme described the situation at the centre as peaceful and very orderly, saying that over 4,000 pensioners were expected to turn up for the exercise in Lokoja which She said was holding simultaneously in all the states in the North-Central zone.
NAN
