The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) on Tuesday in Ibadan commenced the verification of its pensioners for the payment of pension arrears.

Some of the pensioners were being owed between 15 months and 25 months pension arrears. Mr Mujaidu Soyemi, the Chairman of the NRC Pensioners (Western Zone), said that the pensioners were in three categories. According to him, these are the Pre-1996 group, the NICON group for those who retired between 1996 and 2004, and the "OBJ" group for those who retired as from 2005.

Soyemi said that the purpose of the verification was to ascertain the actual number of pensioners before the commencement of payment, adding that the exercise was in line with the Federal Government's directive. He said that the pensioners' verification, which was going on simultaneously in other states, would be a week-long exercise, adding that it was long overdue owing to the fact that many of the pensioners were now dead.

Since 1996, a lot has happened to our pensioners. Many of them are no more but the Federal Government has also made provisions for the deceased pensioners through their next-of-kin," he said. Soyemi said that apart from the pension arrears, about 85 per cent of the NRC pensioners were still been owed arrears of their monetisation benefits.

Some of the pensioners, who spoke with NAN, described the exercise as belated, adding that their families had been supporting them for the past years.