NITEL, MTEL Pensioners Protest Over Unpaid Arrears

Retired workers of the defunct NITEL and MTEL took their protest to the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, demanding payment of 35 months of pension arrears.

The group, made up of senior citizens who served in the nation’s former telecom agencies, said they have endured long years of hardship due to unpaid entitlements.

The pensioners, led by spokesperson Okey Ifepe, said they came out because they could no longer cope with the neglect they have faced. They explained that their arrears are not just delayed payments but what they described as years of hunger, illness and the loss of colleagues who died waiting for relief.

They pointed out that other defunct agencies under the same Defined Benefits Scheme, such as New Nigerian Newspapers and NICON Insurance, have been fully settled, leaving only NITEL and MTEL pensioners without their dues. The group said the exclusion has deepened their suffering and created an unfair gap in how pensioners are treated.

The protest also drew attention to their exclusion from the N32,000 pension increase recently approved by President Bola Tinubu for DBS pensioners. They questioned why they were left out despite being verified and enrolled under the same scheme as others. Many of them currently earn less than ₦20,000 a month, which they say cannot sustain basic needs.

The pensioners added that the government still owes them several adjustments and benefits, including the balance of pension increases from 2015 and 2020, the ₦25,000 palliative for DBS pensioners, death benefits for next-of-kin, and payments for verified retirees that have been pending since 2018.

They appealed to the president, the finance ministry, pension regulators and the accountant-general to intervene. The group said they only want to live their remaining years with dignity after serving the nation before its telecom sector was privatised in 2006.