The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika may have put to rest the agitation of ex workers of liquidated Nigeria Airways with his recent announcement that the Federal Government has approved N45 billion severance package for former staff of the defunct Nigeria Airways.
Speaking in Abuja after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, Sirika disclosed that the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had been instructed to put the machinery in place for payment of the workers.
This is coming as the workers had protested that the government had three months ago approved about N78 billion for the settlement of the entitlements of the workers.
According to a former staff of the airline who refused to be named, an agency in the Federal Ministry of Finance, precisely the Presidential Committee on continuous Auditing, set up by Federal Government to cross check the correctness of contracts had stalled the payment of their entitlements, insisting that the amount be scaled down by fifty percent.
A situation which sources said had pitched the aviation ministry officials with the officials of the aviation ministry.
The airways workers claimed they had written to the President Mohammed Buhari severally on the issue. The source said the president had asked for clarification on his return after hearing that the ex-workers protested, seeking to know if it was the money he had earlier approved or whether it was money they are agitating for.
There were also allegations that the PICCA also wanted about N1.3 billion to perfect the payment of the workers entitlements.
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