NPA MD, Omar Suleiman

  
Francis Ugwoke

Former employees of   the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) who were retrenched in  1991 are to be paid  N195.7million benefits  as the final claims  due to them, 21 years after being asked to leave service.

The General Manager, Public Affairs of the NPA, Chief Michael Ajayi in a statement Monday  explained that the  amount  was calculated based on the current inflation rate using the annuity formula over a 20 year period (1991-2011) which was 8.23091% as provided by the Central Bank.

Ajayi said “Management’s decision to review the payment upwards is based on compassionate grounds as clearly made known to the representatives of the retrenched workers bearing in mind the interval between the first payment and current payment.

“Consequently, forms containing the list of the ex-employees have been forwarded to their representatives to enable them furnish their new bank details (NUBAN) to enable  payment to be effected in line with the e-payment of the Federal Government”.

He explained that   payment was  in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment delivered  in favour of the workers   about five years ago.

“We may wish to recall that in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment dated 11th May, 2007 which directed that the calculation and payment of retirement benefits (pension and gratuity) payments be computed based on the Pension Act 1990 as amended by circular No 63216, S.1/x/618 of 13th September, 1991  prescribing the period of service of the affected workers in the organisation. 

“Accordingly, management set up a committee to determine those that are eligible, and thereafter conducted an audit exercise to verify and identify the affected employees and consequently computed the difference between the basic and total emolument of the retrenched employees of June 1991.

“In the light of the above, payments were made to the affected persons with the exception of those who failed to provide relevant bank details and also next-of-kin of some deceased employees”.

The statement disclosed that   while payment has been     made to 1,531 persons ,  the bank details of about    538  are still being expected for payment to be remitted.
It would be recalled that the affected employees had cried out  over the years  appealing for the payment to be made  without success.
They had lamented that many of their members  had died while waiting for the payment.