LAGOS—NIGERIA Airways’ pensioners yesterday stormed the presidential wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, protesting non-payment of 26 months arrears of pension by the federal government.
The pensioners were particularly miffed by government’s use of the airline’s liquidation as an alibi for not paying their pensions, lamenting loss of no less than 200 members due to lack of money for medical bills.
Chanting solidarity songs, the protesting pensioners’ arrival stunned staff of the protocol department of the airport’s presidential wing, who ran out of their offices to form the long chain of onlookers.
Some of the pensioners, mainly elderly, wept openly yesterday to drive home their frustrations, saying taking care of their immediate families had been a task in the last 26 months.
Spokesman of the pensioners, Mr. Fidelis Opia Ijoma, told newsmen that their case was a bad one because the airline’s managing director who should plead their case is equally distressed on the matter.
“The managing director’s hands are tied; He is just like one of us. In fact, he is a liquidation MD,” said Ijoma in a response to a question on what the managing director, Mr. Jonathan Jiya, was doing to help their case.
According to him, the pensioners, numbering about 4,000 had all retired before the airline’s liquidation was even contemplated by the federal government, wondering why they should now be deprived of their rights for the same reason.
He said all efforts to get the attention of President Olusegun Obasanjo had since proved fruitless, as he (Obasanjo) had refused to respond to the series of letters of appeal sent to him.
“We have even sent letters to the Senate, House of Representatives, Alake of Egbaland, Emir of Kano and Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie calling for their intervention on the matter, but we have not heard anything,” Ijoma lamented.
