The Federal Government has taken the verification and payment of ex-workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited, NAL, in Diaspora to London, United Kingdom (UK).
Federal Ministry of Finance officials stated that the exercise would last two weeks, beginning Monday.
The exercise to be conducted by an inter-ministerial team would take place at the Nigerian High Commission Complex in London.
The Inter-Ministerial Team is being coordinated by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit, PICA, under the Federal Ministry of Finance.
Its members included the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Commission, ICPC, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Auditor General Office, Accountant General Office, Federal Ministry of Finance.
The Acting Director of PICA, Mr John Waitono, would be leading the team on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr Mohammad Kyari Dikwa.
It was learnt that Federal Government approved the conduct of the exercise for those in Diaspora in London, due to the role the city of London played as the European Operational Office of the defunct NAL.
“The essence of the exercise is to alleviate the hardship of being experienced for more than a decade while waiting for the benefits and to save them from the stress and financial burden of traveling to the country for the exercise, including other logistics to come for their Nigeria for their entitlements,” an official said.
The exercise had taken place in Kano, Lagos and Enugu centres to attend to the over 6, 000 ex-workers of NAL, following the approval of N22.6 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari to pay their entitlements.
The Federal Government had paid the first 50 percent of the entitlements to the ex-workers who had completed their verification exercise in October 2018.
President Buhari, who had apologised for the over a decade neglect by previous administrations, gave the directive that the verification and payment of the ex-staff in Diaspora be done in London to save them the cost and stress of traveling down to Nigeria.
