Pensioners of the defunct NITEL–MTEL on Tuesday staged a protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, demanding the payment of long-overdue entitlements they say have been ignored for years.
The retirees sat on the floor outside the ministry building, accusing the government of neglect and of failing to address their outstanding benefits despite repeated engagements with relevant authorities.
Speaking to journalists during the demonstration, the group’s coordinator, Mr. Okey Ifepe, said the protest became necessary after numerous appeals yielded no results. He said the retirees are owed 35 months of pension arrears and have been excluded from the recently approved ₦32,000 increase for pensioners under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS).
“We stand here today not as beggars, not as agitators, but as senior citizens who gave our strength, our youth, and our loyalty to this country,” Mr. Ifepe said. “Yet after decades of service, we are abandoned, excluded, unpaid, and forgotten. We have been pushed to the wall — and still, we stand with dignity.”
He accused the government of discriminatory treatment, noting that other defunct agencies under the same scheme — including New Nigerian Newspapers, NICON Insurance, Nigeria Reinsurance, Delta Steel, and NNSL — had been fully settled.
“Only NITEL–MTEL pensioners remain unpaid,” he said.
Mr. Ifepe added that excluding the retirees from the ₦32,000 increase had left many struggling to survive.
“When President Bola Tinubu approved the ₦32,000 increase for all DBS pensioners, it was meant to be humanitarian relief — not selective, not discriminatory. Other pensioners received it; NITEL–MTEL pensioners did not. How can anyone survive on ₦14,500, ₦16,000, or ₦17,000 a month?” he asked.
He listed additional outstanding payments, including the balance of the 12.95 per cent pension increase approved in 2020, the 10.66 per cent adjustment from 2015, and a ₦25,000 palliative earlier promised to the retirees.
