Pensioners commend NJC for easy data capturing

Some retirees of the National Judicial Council have commended the commission for the successful capturing of their biometric data. The two-day exercise that ended on Saturday captured the biometrics of retired judges and other former judicial workers in the state.

A former Chief Justice of Lagos State, Inumidun Akande, said the yearly capturing of pensioners biometric by the commission ensured that pensions were paid on time and eliminates the possibility of ghost pensioners.

“They’ve been paying our pension from time to time and they even pay faster than Lagos State. I retired as the chief judge of Lagos State in year 2012 and I have been participating in data capturing since then and my pension has always been on time.I’m giving them a very good mark,” she said.

She also commended the state government for visiting pensioners, who were to sick or weak to come to the venue of the capturing, in their homes to take their biometrics.

A retired assistant chief magistrate, Alao Abiodun, however said more machines should be provided for the exercise in the future for easier capturing of retirees’ biometrics.

“I retired in 2003 and I’ve been participating in this for long. They don’t owe me. If they want to do all these things next time , they should provide two machines. In Lagos state, we have supreme court, court of appeal and state high court, and we are many in Lagos and it will take longer time before they can attend to everyone with one machine.”

The Executive Secretary of the National Judicial Committee, Ahmed Saleh, told journalists said since 2013, the commission has paid pensioners as at when due. He added that 99 per cent of pension arrears have also been cleared.

“Apart from taking over the administration of the pension, the council also inherited a huge sum of money in terms of arrears all to the federal judicial retired officers and the retired judiciary staff likely to tune of over 2.6 billion naira. It’s however gratifying today for me to state her that the council has settled over 99 percent of these arrears.”

“The council also is up-to-date, in terms of monthly payment and pensions of the pensioners. We paid the pension for October few days ago.”

“It is also important for me to state here that, as at today, our federal retired judicial officers received their gratuity not less than a month after the date of their retirement.”

“This was achieved because of the leadership and with the support given to the council by the Chairman of the council, Honourable minister Of Justice Walter Samuel and the Chief Justice of Nigeria.”

“Just last year, for instance, His Lordship approved the upgrading of the pension units in the council. And we have so far with the support, being able to put in a robust operational and structural frame work in order to sustain and maintain the feat. These are facts that many people here can testify to.”