FG Takes Verification of ex-Nigeria Airways Workers to UK

• FG Takes Verification of ex-Nigeria Airways Workers to UK

The Federal Government on Sunday said it was taking the verification and payment of ex-workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited in Diaspora to London, United Kingdom.

The two weeks exercise which will be conducted by an inter-ministerial team begins on Monday, June 24, 2019, at the Nigerian High Commission Complex in London, UK.

The team, which would be coordinated by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit under the Federal Ministry of Finance, will comprise the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Commission, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Auditor General Office, Accountant General Office, Federal Ministry of Finance, and others.

The development was confirmed by a statement issued by the Acting Director of PICA, Mr John Waitono.

The statement said the Federal Government approved the conduct of the exercise for those in the Diaspora in London, due to the role the city of London played as the European Operational Office of the defunct NAL.

The statement said the essence of the exercise was to alleviate the hardship experienced 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.

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 N22.6bn by President Muhammadu Buhari, to pay their entitlements.

The Federal Government had paid the first 50 per cent of the entitlements to the ex-workers who had completed their verification exercise in October 2018.

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 traveling down to Nigeria.