Railway retirees demand inclusion in monetisation of staff quarters
…call for justice, equity, fair play
Retirees under the aegis of Association of Nigerian Railway Senior Citizens (ANRSC) have demanded that the 2005 retirees of Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, be included on the recent Federal Government monetisation of the Corporation’s staff quarters.
The group disclosed that they were the original tenants as at the time the monetisation policy was initiated and became effective but were forcefully thrown out from the quarters even after satisfying the stipulated conditions.
Addressing journalists in Enugu, the Chairman of 2005 Railway Retirees, Mr Ihemelendu Kanu, flanked by the secretary, Isaac Nnadozie and others urged the Honourable Minister of Transportation to look critically into the matter and allow justice to prevail by making 1st of April 2004 a benchmark as stipulated in the railway staff quarters monetisation guideline.
Kanu, while expressing joy that the monetisation of quarters was now resurrected not through court, reminded the minister of transportation that the Industrial court judgement of January 6, 2016 favoured both the serving and retirees.
He however, frowned at the publications by the Corporation on some national dailies with captions, “FG raises panel to monetise railway quarters and “Retirees warn against exclusion from the sale of railway staff quarters” saying that the publications have not addressed the FG monetisation policy.
“We are driven by the principles of natural justice, morality, equity, fair play and common sense to react to some publication made on the monetisation of quarters in the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, in some newspapers with tittle, “FG raises panel to monetise railway quarters” authored by President General of Railway Senior Staff Association, RSSA, and Nigerian Union of Railway Men, NUR.
“And another from an organ of retirees based in Lagos, with caption; “Retirees warn against exclusion from the sale of railway staff quarters”. We wish to state that the publication are self centered and have not addressed the monetisation policy of federal government.
“This policy of staff quarters monetisation has its effective date as at 1st of October 2003 via a circular Ref No. PRES36/1 of 9th December 2003 signed by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR. It was further expatiated by other working tools like the generic guidelines issued by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms in collaboration with Bureau of Public Enterprise of March 2006.
“In its P.11, it said that the physical fringe benefits such as the Residential quarters, cars, telephones etc should have been dispensed with, that is, sold to the sitting tenants as at that time.
“We, who were Sitting Tenants as at 1st April 2004, after having satisfied the stipulated conditions, expected our allocated quarters to be monetized to us but was not forth-coming until we retired from Service and were ejected from the quarters by FORCE by the Nigerian Railway Corporation when we requested through our Union (Nigerian Union of Pensioners) for this policy to be implemented.
“We have approached various courts on this issue, some have been decided and some in Appeal courts. With the latest development on this matter of Monetization of quarters in the Nigerian Railway Corporation which was at a point locked by a letter from the Presidency Ref no. SGF. 19/S.47/C.1/Vol. v1/249 of 20th April 2013 and approved by President Goodluck Jonathan on 30/04/12 1.e. (Exempting the Railway quarters from being monetized). we
“One is happy to see the resurrection of the matter not through the Courts reminding the Minister that both the serving staff and retired staff went to court on this matter and that the Railway Management went to Appeal court to nullify a judgment of the Industrial Court of 6th January 2016 which tendered in favour of both the serving and retired.
“We therefore ask, that the Federal Government of Nigeria, the maker of the monetization policy should allow justice and fairplay to be embedded in the implementation by sticking to the conditions stipulated in the guidelines which specifically mentioned as a pre-requisite 1st April 2004.
“It is worthy to mention that all the accruals from this policy was implemented in 2009 to both the serving and retired and only that of the quarters was left over. We appeal to the Hon. Minister of Transportation to look critically into this matter and allow justice to prevail by making 1st April 2004 a benchmark as stipulated in the guidelines.
“And to ask the Committee set up on this matter to investigate all the allocation papers submitted by the working staff and those who said they were in Service when the Court action that culminated into the Ruling of National Industrial Court in Lagos on 6th January 2016, because most of those papers submitted are fake. Not all the occupants of the Railway Quarters are/were Railway staff.
“And that all the retired Railway staff quartered between 1st October 2003 should come forward with their intention to bid for the quarters by presenting their documents,” he said.
