Seven years after the last pension was paid to them, retirees of the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL)have appealed to President Umar Yar'Adua to intervene and so that their pension arrears of seven years estimated at N1.8 billion would be paid.

President of the Pensioners' Welfare Association, NNSL chapter, Mr. Patrick Ogobuegwu, who made the appeal in Lagos during the week, explained that the last time they were paid their pension was December 2001.

Ogobuegwu explained that the agreement among the Federal Ministries of Transport, Finance and the retirees was that the arrears would be settled by December 2007 and thereafter government would pay upfront, the five years pension entitlements that would be final.

He accused the Federal Ministry of Finance of being too slow in its arrangements towards paying the pension arrears, adding that this was the reason why the retirees decided to call for Yar'Adua's intervention.

He said that the retirees should not be made to suffer further hardships since the closure of the shipping line was not their fault.

He explained that it was during the regime of the late General Sani Abacha that the shipping line was liquidated because it was starved of funds.

He added that the 19 ships, which the company had before its liquidation were not properly managed due to inadequate funding.

He said apart from the fact that the ships could only carry cargoes without containers; most of them were impounded in some foreign countries due to inability of the defunct NNSL to pay fines slammed on them for various offences.

It would be recalled that NNSL went under in 1995.

The successor to NNSL, Nigeria Unity Line (NUL), managed by former Military Governor of Plateau State, retired Rear Admiral Sam Atukum, also went under because its only vessel, `MV Abuja' was not a containerised vessel and could not do much business.

Before it was sold, 'MV Abuja' ran into troubled several times. She ('MV Abuja')was arrested and detained a number of times in Asia for accidents and other offences by port state controls, while the crew suffered severe neglect as a result of non-payment of salaries and allowances.