On Wednesday, the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria announced the death of five former staff of the defunct Nigerian Airways who passed on within the last seven days without receiving their final severance packages.

During the Workers days celebration, Emmanuel Jaja, the ATSSSAN Secretariat in Lagos, the First Vice President of the association, called on the Federal Government to settle all the outstanding severance benefits of the erstwhile national carrier workers who dedicated their lives to serve their Fatherland.

Jaja explained that the country was grounded following the ongoing fuel supply challenges saying the labour body is studying the situation.

He said, “We wish to lament the death of five former Staff of the Nigerian Airways Staff who lost their lives in the last week, including the pilot whose plane was hijacked in 1993, Captain Makpo Omodiagbe without them receiving their full benefits from the federal government after the liquidation of the airline.”

“The government must endeavour to pay the remaining living staff so that they can enjoy the labour of their lives before they are called home by their creator.”

These packages, according to ATSSSAN, were promised to be given to the now-deceased pilots by the Federal Government since the liquidation of the airline during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

ATSSSAN said, some package were promised to be given to the late pilots by the Federal Government since the liquidation of the airline during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

The group lamented that over a hundred former workers of the country’s national airline have died since the last verification and part-payment exercise carried out during Gen Muhammad Buhari’s administration in 2019.