Former Nigerian telecoms employees have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Federal Ministry of Finance to release counterpart fund for their pension and other emoluments.
The former NITEL and MTEL employees, under the auspices of Association of Former Telecoms Employees of Nigeria, said the previous government had agreed to pay the counterpart fund to the companies’ liquidator to settle entitlements of the former staff.

President of the association, Mr. Oluti Gabriel made the appeal during a special meeting between the National Executive and members of the association in Kaduna, Saturday.


According to him, the immediate past Federal Government admitted that the fund realized from the sale of NITEL and MTEL was not enough to settle their liabilities “and therefore agreed to pay counterpart fund to our liquidator, to enable the liquidator settle our entitlements.

“Initially, we were given five years pension buy-out, which was paid to us in piecemeal between 2007 and 2010. So, after then, this struggle started, because we are entitled to pension for life. So, we went to High Court to challenge the five years pension buy-out, as the case was ongoing, the issue of liquidation of NITEL came up and we quickly went to liquidation court, where we were declared as secured creditors and gave injunction that we are qualified for pension for life.

“What we want President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to do is to implement the court order by directing the Federal Ministry of Finance to release counterpart fund to the liquidator, so that the liquidator can add its own counterpart fund and pay us our entitlements,” he said.

Gabriel, who responded to several questions raised by his members during the interactive session, lamented that many of their members had died due to lack of access to quality medical care.


He, however, urged members to pray for Buhari’s administration, while expressing optimism that the government would look into their plight.