The Federal Government said it will begin the verification and payment of former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) in London, United Kingdom, today.
The exercise, which will last for two weeks, will be conducted by an inter-ministerial team and it will take place at the Nigerian High Commission Complex in London, UK.
According to a statement by the Acting Director of the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), John Waitono, the inter-ministerial team will be coordinated by PICA under the Federal Ministry of Finance with representatives from the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Auditor General Office, Accountant General Office, Federal Ministry of Finance, and others.
Waitono said he will be leading the team and representing the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mohammad Kyari Dikwa, during the exercise.
The statement noted that the Federal Government approved the conduct of the exercise for those in Diaspora in London, England due to the role the city of London played as the European Operational Office of the defunct NAL.
“The essence of the exercise is to alleviate the hardship being experienced by the ex-workers for more than a decade while waiting for the benefits and to save them from the stress and financial burden of travelling to the country for the exercise including other logistics to come to Nigeria for their entitlements,” the statement said.
It would be recalled that similar exercise had taken place in Kano, Lagos and Enugu centres to attend to the over 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 percent of the entitlements to the ex-workers who had completed their verification exercise in October 2018.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who had apologised for the over a decade neglect by previous administrations, gave the directive that the verification and payment exercise for the ex-staff in Diaspora be done in London to save them the cost and stress of travelling down to Nigeria.
