Relief came the way of ex staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria as the the Federal government disbursed the sum of N409,915,331,675.45 on the payment of severance and death benefits to them and their relations. According to the Bureau of Public Enterprises on Monday, the payment streams were categorised into severance payments to the former active staff of PHCN; and payment of the PHCN retirees/death benefits which the PHCN could not pay before it handed over to the successor companies. The bureau stated that for active staff, the total number submitted to the BPE by the PHCN was 47,913 and out of the number, 47,275 representing 99 per cent had been fully paid. “These were forwarded to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation for payment in 36 batches,” BPE stated. Read also: Bandits kidnap Zamfara councillor, five others It noted that out of the 638 outstanding active staff, there were 167 duplicate and blank spaces on the list; 414 never turned up for verification; 25 had been audited and were awaiting cash-backing; nine with initial documentation problems would soon be audited; while 23 had documentation problems.