Ex-Nigeria Airways workers seek divine intervention over pensions, gratuity owed by FG

For the umpteenth time, former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways converged in Lagos for a special prayer to seek divine intervention over the delay in the payment of their entitlements, which amounts to over N80 billion.

According to Daily Trust report, Some of the ex-workers under the platform of the Bring Back Nigeria Airways forum gathered at the Air Force Base inside the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos for the prayer.

It was to solicit God’s intervention in prevailing on the present administration to pay their pensions and entitlements following the liquidation of the defunct national carrier in 2004.

More than 200 of the former workers attended the session.

Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika had earlier assured that the present administration would settle all liabilities of the defunct national carrier as government is poised to re-launch a new carrier.

However, the former workers decry the delay in the payment of their entitlements, lamenting that many of them had passed away in the struggle.

Dr. Steve Mahonwu, 74, blamed the delay on bureaucratic bottlenecks within the system.

He however expressed optimism that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government would listen to their pleas and settle all their entitlements.

He said, “The money is there according to information we have but bureaucracy, those who are checking and doing continuous audit, checking and cross-checking, a letter would stay with one Permanent Secretary for a whole week or two weeks without moving, have been frustrating it”.

Founder and Leader of the Bring Back Nigeria Airways, a group fighting for the course of former workers of the airline, Capt. Ibrahim Yunusa Kazaure expressed hope that Buhari would settle their entitlements. However, he said the earlier the better as their members die on daily basis.