The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) disclosed at the weekend that it had paid the sum of N1, 565,190,623.12 billion to 500 next of kins of the deceased NITEL/Mtel pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme.

The Directorate stated that the payments were made to the beneficiaries sequel to their completion of the process of documentation and having been cleared for payment by the federal auditors.

The PTAD’s Executive Secretary, Sharon Ikeazor, explained that the timely payment was achieved through verification exercise conducted by the Directorate to authenticate genuine next of kins of the deceased NITEL/Mtel employees..

Ikeazor assured those who were yet to be paid of the Directorate’s commitment to ensure that beneficiaries are not denied their entitlements after verification of their claims.