Janet Musa Diye, the 32-year-old wife of late Musa Diya, a retiree of the College of Education, Akwanga, Nasarawa State, narrated the story of her late husband’s stoppage of salary.
“I got married to my husband in November 2014 when he was still working in the college but around July 2015 his salary ceased and all efforts to address the challenge proved abortive till he died in June 2016.
“Life is like hell because of what I have been going through before and after the death of my husband but I thank God for my parents’ support, they have been feeding us.
One day my late husband slumped, I remember on June 7, 2016, when I left him at home he was very healthy. He neither looked ill nor complained of any problem. Some minutes later he called me saying I should rush home to take him to hospital, and we took him to the General Hospital in Akwanga where they advised us to move him to Ola Hospital for attention. The management at Ola Hospital later referred us the Federal Medical Center (FMC) and it there that his heart stopped beating and he died.
“After his death and burial, the college gave us about N600, 000 as his salary from August 2014 to May 2015 which was not paid before his retirement, I expecting about N1 million but they claimed that they deducted N50,000.
“The relatives of my late husband abandoned me and my child, Derick, since after the burial. They rarely visit or support us. But I remember the staff union in the college (NASU) approached me before the burial and donated N200, 000.
“Life has not been easy at all, it has been terrible. He was the only one taking care of the family. I got my Bachelor of Art (BA) degree in CRK and later PGD in teaching. But I must thank God for my parents who are behind me.”
“I approached the management of the college after the burial for my husband for his gratuity and pension. They asked me to bring a letter of administration and I went to the High Court in Lafia. I started the process last March and I was able to get the letter in October and submitted it to the college, waiting for their response.
“My appeal to the state government is to help give me a job anywhere as a means of survival. I cannot be depending on my parents for life. I want the college to process the benefits of my late husband because the house rent expired in November.”
Another widow whose husband died waiting for his retirement benefits, 58-year- old Christiana Sabo said the family had been in difficult condition even before the man’s retirement because his salary was stopped about six months before he retired.
“My late husband, Christopher Sabo, collected a loan from a cooperative and started building his own house because we are living in the college quarters. When the salary stopped coming he failed to remit the loan and that became the genesis of his illness and this problem started shortly before his retirement. When he retired and nothing was forthcoming his health deteriorated as all efforts to get his benefits proved abortive. I was left alone with the burden of medical bills coupled with the children’s school fees.
“After all efforts to revive his live here in Nasarawa failed we move him to Kogi State for additional medical care but he couldn’t survive. I am a petty trader selling cosmetics here in Akwanga but because of the protracted illness of my late husband all my capital ran out settling his medical bills not talk of debts that accumulated which forced me out business.
“Life has been so difficult for me and the situation has given me hypertension. I am on hypertensive drugs. It is the mercy of God that is keeping me alive. I thank Almighty God for the eldest son of the family. He is a photographer who struggles to provide food and other essential needs of the family. I am a mother of eight now battling for food and drugs to survive, I am right now helpless.
“When he died officials of the college gave us N50,000, we were disturbed and later approached the management over his gratuity and pension, they gave us N200, 000 and since then nothing has come from the college. Whenever we asked for his benefits they told us to exercise patience as he is not the only affected person.
“Just recently one of his colleagues who is owing the deceased some money mounted pressure on us to pay him or he would drag us to court. I went back to the college with the next of kin to work out ways getting his father’s benefits but noting has come out yet.
“We are currently facing double challenges, apart from the pains of losing the bread winner, we are living in the staff quarters which is a government property and we don’t know our fate. We are afraid that one day they would drive us out.
“I have approached the management if they can employ one or two of my children even if it is for cleaning job but they said government had directed the management not to employ anyone. I have a child who recently got admission into a secondary school but is now at home because I don’t have the money to pay his school fees.
“I am appealing to the state government to settle all late husband’s benefits so that we can renew the hopes of our children. My late husband left behind three wives and 17 children. We need to have a means of paying their school fees. We also need a little start-up capital to do small business so to reduce the agony of our late husband’s death.
The story of the 24 retirees from the college who were excluded from payment two years after retirement from active service come to limelight when the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), COE Akwanga, Patrick Oyunu, disclosed this when he presented a memo at a public hearing before the fact-finding committee set up by the state government to investigate activities of the college from 2014 October to 2017.
Oyunu said salaries of the affected staff were stopped since 2015 immediately after they were retired from service, but were not placed on pension.
“After the workers’ verification exercise the salaries of staff of the college were sent to the salary bureau in September 2015 and their names were removed from the bureau because they had retired. The salaries were supposed to be transferred to the pension subvention or pension list which was not done,” he said.
Oyunu told the committee that the 24 officers who retired in 2015 were yet to be included in the pension list and had not been paid since September 2015. This he said had resulted in the death of some. Death benefits of several staff who died in active service have not been paid to their dependents either.
“This is pathetic and uncalled for as we do not care how their dependents are faring,” he said.
“Those who retired before 2015 are owed gratuities while those who retired after 2015 are worse, as nothing has been paid to them. The situation they are passing through since their retirement in 2015 is better to be imagined than real,” he added.
He said the Nigeria Union of Pensioners had written several times to the state government and the House of Assembly without any improvement or positive response.
He appealed to the state government to increase the monthly allocation to the college to enable the management offset all outstanding pensions.
The Chairman of the Fact-Finding Committee, Umar Muhammad Sani, said the committee received 13 memos from individuals, groups and associations.
The spokesman of the college, Mustapha Ibrahim, said the management was aware of the 24 retires and was working towards resolving their problem.
He debunked reports that some workers of the college died as result of the termination of their appointments, adding that those who died were retirees whose retirements were due but were still waiting for their benefits and pension.
He added that the rector of the college had since forwarded the case of the affected persons to the state governor to solve the problem.
