Over 800 former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) have passed away in the course of awaiting for the payment of their entitlements, it has been alleged.

Speaking to Daily Trust, the Coordinator of the Bring Back Nigeria Airways Group, Capt. Ibrahim Yunusa Kazaure said that the former workers of the national carrier had continued to languish in abject poverty.

Kazaure spoke on the sideline of a special prayer organized by the group at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos at the weekend to seek divine intervention for the country and pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to fast-track the payment of their entitlements amounting to over N70bn.

The coordinator said it was heart-warming that the government was re-thinking a new national carrier but the ex-workers who were laid off in the wake of the liquidation of the old carrier should be paid off.