Payment of Nigerian Airways ex-staff in diaspora begins Monday

The Federal Government says the verification and payment of ex-workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) in Diaspora will begin on Monday in London, United Kingdom (UK).

Mr John  Waitono, Acting Director, Presidential Initiative on Continuous  Audit (PICA), said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

According to him, the two weeks exercise will be conducted by an Inter-Ministerial Team at the Nigerian High Commission in London.

He said that the team would be coordinated by PICA, (PICA is under the Ministry of Finance) and comprise the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Auditor-General Office, Accountant-General Office and others agencies.

Waitono will also represent Mr Mohammad Dikwa, Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Ministry of Finance,  by leading the team during the exercise.

He said that the Federal Government approved the conduct of the exercise for those in diaspora in London, due to the role the city played as the European Operational Office of the defunct NAL.

“The essence of the exercise is to alleviate the hardship being experienced for more than a decade while waiting for the benefits.

“It will also save them the stress and financial burden of traveling to the country for the exercise including other logistics involved in coming to Nigeria for their entitlements.”

He recalled that a similar exercise had taken place in Kano, Lagos and Enugu centres to attend to the more than 6, 000 ex-workers of NAL, following the approval of  N22.6 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari, to pay their entitlements.

The Federal Government had paid the first 50 per cent of the entitlements to the ex-workers who had completed their verification exercise in October 2018.

Waitono said that the president apologised for the over a decade neglect by previous administrations and gave the directive that the exercise for the ex-staff in diaspora be done in London to save them the cost and stress of traveling down to Nigeria.