NJC Commences Biometric Registration of Pensioners to Curb Fraud

By Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

By National Judicial Council (NJC) has commenced the biometric registration of federal judiciary pensioners to weed out ghost pensioners and prevent sharp practices.

The Executive Secretary of the council, Mr. Garba Saleh, on Monday while supervising the exercise at the Federal High Court premises told journalists that the data capturing of federal judiciary pensioners will redeem the chaotic challenges confronting the pension scheme.

He expressed dismay over the alleged corrupt practices surrounding pension matters in the country, saying this necessitated the move by NJC to shield federal judicial workers from falling victims to perpetrators of the illicit act.

According to him, the NJC has inherited the responsibility to superintend over pension of federal judiciary workers, adding that the current situation will ease the pains of judiciary pensioners.

“Before now, the issue of pension of federal judiciary workers has been clumsy and chaotic, that led to corruption, causing hardship” Saleh stated.

He disclosed that NJC has upset over 80 of pension arrears, adding that sanity is been injected into the federal judiciary pension matters to curb fraudulent practices.

Garba said that data capturing is a nationwide exercise, which is mandatory for every staff on the verge of retirement, noting that this will facilitate the prompt payment of the pension entitlement as soon as they retire from service.

When quizzed on the objection to the transfer of federal judiciary pension matters to NJC, Garba said people are entitled to hold divergent legal opinion or interpretation, adding that under the present arrangement, federal judicial pensioners will enjoy the timely payment of their entitlements.