N-Power Beneficiaries Protest In Abuja, Demands Made (Photos)
Hundreds of N-Power volunteers had on Thursday troop out in Abuja to stage a protest over their unpaid stipends and sudden disengagement by the Nigerian Government without a substantial exit package.
The protesters stormed the National Assembly in large numbers chanting anti-government songs.
The beneficiaries are agitating for permanent employment or payment of the sum of N600,000 to each of them before disengagement.
The volunteers also demanded the removal of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouk, for frustrating the programme.
The protesters, who came from 36 states of the country including Federal Capital Territory, also demanded payment of batch A and B beneficiaries until the transition was completed.
National President of the N-Power volunteers, Kabiru Aliyu Pelemi, said it would be a disaster for the country if the government pushed over 500,000 beneficiaries back into the labour market.
On his part, the FCT Coordinator of N-Power, Adeyeye Mojeed Adepoju, said many volunteers had not got their stipends for March, April, May and June.
The protesters after the submission of their letter to the leadership of the National Assembly, proceeded to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to register their demands.
Recall that the minister, Sadiya Umar Farouk, who is in charge of the N-Power programme, had sent a farewell message to the batch A and B volunteers ahead of their disengagement.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Information at the Ministry, Rhoda Iliya, in a statement on Thursday, revealed that 14,020 N-Power volunteers have existing accounts on the payroll of other agencies. Iliya said the accountant-general of the federation is working to resolve the outstanding payment of genuine and eligible beneficiaries.
“The attention of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has been drawn to the complaint of non-payment of some N-Power beneficiaries during the last exercise, with some, alleging non-payment for upward of four months,” she said.
She continued: “For the records, the Ministry wishes to state that it had always processed, approved and remitted necessary information for payments to the Office of the Accountant–General of the Federation (OAGF) whose responsibility it is to credit the various accounts of the beneficiaries, using the GIFMIS platform as directed by FGN.
“However, after receiving complaint of non-payment by some beneficiaries who did same through the ministry, the OAGF (GIFMIS) officially wrote informing the ministry that out of a total of Five Hundred and Sixteen Thousand, Six Hundred (516,600) N-Power beneficiaries data sent to OAGF for migration in April, 2020, only a total of Five Hundred and Two Thousand, Five Hundred and Eighty (502,580) data have successfully migrated to the GIFMIS platform, while a total of Fourteen Thousand and Twenty (14,020) beneficiaries were returned because the beneficiaries’ account details already exist in other MDAs, which is against the established rule of the N-Power programme. This is verifiable.
“The Honourable Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, regrets any inconvenience this might have caused genuine and eligible beneficiaries just as the OAGF saddled with the responsibility of filtering out those denied is working assiduously to remedy the situation.”
