About 830 Bank of Industry (BOA) pensioners under the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), are being owed pensions for 13 months.

Some of the affected pensioners have reportedly been dying while many can no longer afford to feed and buy drugs to treat themselves as a result of non-payment of their pensions, sources told SaharaReporters on Wednesday.

They said that many others, especially those in the diaspora have not been verified at all.

They further lamented that they had made several efforts to meet with the PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr. Chioma Ekijeme and written to her over the non-payment of their pensions but that no explanation had been given to them regarding the delay.

The pensioners have resorted to a declaration of nationwide prayers to call on God “to soften her (Dr. Ekijeme) heart to make her pay us,” and called on President Bola Tinubu’s administration to urgently intervene in their matter.

“Let us all cry to God, He will listen to us. I call on all BOA pensioners, Muslims and Christians to organise a national prayer on Friday at the mosques and on Sunday at the churches on the PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr Chioma Ekijeme for God to soften her heart to make her pay us our 13 months pension arrears, pay all those underpaid and our colleagues in diaspora.

“The situation BOA pensioners found themselves in presently is pathetic, sorrowful and very very sad indeed. God will surely intervene for us,” a message shared among the aggrieved pensioners read.

Speaking with SaharaReporters on the phone on Wednesday, one of the aggrieved pensioners who said he retired as a deputy general manager from a government institution, said, “We started with the Nigerian Agric and Cooperative Bank (NACB) and the name was changed to Bank of Agriculture (BOA) as it is today.

“Many of us who retired from all the federal government organisations before pension became self-contributory were transferred to the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).

“We in BOA were transferred to PTAD in November 2022 and we got our last pension from BOA in November 2022. This is the 13th month.

“About 830 pensioners of us are affected by the BOA’s nonpayment of our pension for over a year now. Some have been receiving small amounts while many including me have not been receiving anything and some have not even been verified at all.

“All of us are aggrieved. Our executive council has tried to see the PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr.  Chioma Ekijeme; we wrote, yet, nobody has met her and we do not know on what basis some people received some little amounts and some have not received anything at all and some have not been verified, especially those in the diaspora; because those in the diaspora were receiving their pension before we were transferred to PTAD.”

Lamenting the harsh effects of the unpaid pension, he said, “This has affected me seriously because I have no other source of income. I now depend fully on my family, and I am over 80 years old and therefore visit the hospital regularly for tests and drugs.

“By and by, things are getting tougher. The poor people, my children and cousins and so on who support me also have their families. So, the money is not coming forth from them.

“I’m sure that is how it affects other people. A few of our members have died because they couldn’t cope but I don’t have all their details.

“Our request simply is that if the federal government releases this money to pay our pension, they should pay us. For example, before last November, we were told that we could not join PTAD because there was no money but when provision was made, they took us in.

“So, we do not even know what is happening. Is it because they don’t have enough money? All we want is our pension. Whatever the government or anybody can do to get our pension paid with arrears, even before we were moved to PTAD, the BOA owed us arrears of minimum wage adjustment which they could not pay.

“I retired as a deputy general manager on grade level 16 but though my pension is small, let them pay me to manage as it is.”

Efforts to reach PTAD failed as all the mobile phone lines listed on its website could not be reached. Some of them connected but nobody answered.