The Federal Government has learned that 51,705 illegal pensioners will be removed from the payroll starting April 1 because they did not use the “I Am Alive” confirmation platform, indicating they might be fake.
Among them, 43,010 were from the Civil Service, 6,049 from the Police, and 2,646 from Customs, Immigration, and Prisons.
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) identified pensioners under different departments such as Parastatals, Police, Civil Service, and Customs Immigration and Prisons.
Before this action, PTAD had already removed over 30,000 qualified pensioners were not on the payroll and discovered more than 50,000 ghost pensioners.
The total number of pensioners decreased from 268,897 to 226,693 by December 2022, with N754 billion paid in monthly pensions from January 2015 to December 2022. PTAD claimed to have saved billions of naira through this exercise.
PTAD urged genuine pensioners to verify their status on the “I Am Alive” platform. Failure to do so by the end of March 2024 would result in removal from the April 2024 pension payroll.
The Directorate has sent notifications to affected pensioners and published a list on their website.
Meanwhile, there are discussions about scrapping PTAD and transferring its functions back to the Ministry of Finance.
Some stakeholders suspect that corrupt officials within the civil service are behind this proposal, as PTAD has been effective in combating pension fund mismanagement.
Pensioners express concern about returning to the old system, where they faced challenges like long verification queues, inadequate treatment, and embezzlement of pension funds.
They fear a return to the Ministry of Finance could lead to similar problems. The Nigerian Union of Pensioners plans to peacefully engage with the government to advocate for keeping PTAD operational.
