The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Retiree

  • Retiree marks 70th birthday

    The Chapel of Grace, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH) Complex was fill to capacity when family, brethren, friends, well-wishers and students trooped out to celebrate Pa Theophilus Ojetayo as he clocked 70 years.

    The venue, decorated with burgundy colour was apt as it captured the milestone celebration.

    The celebrator was all smiles as he sang with gusto the hymn- “Praise, my soul the King of Heaven”.

    To him, hosting people who came to witness his birthday celebration was a desire come true. He survived some multiple fractures as a retiree and was treated at the famous University Teaching Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State.

    Pa Ojetayo recounted how he had craved to see the day while on the hospital bed.

    He summed up the significance of the occasion by saying: “This 70th birthday is anchored on Psalms 90:10. The days of our lives are 70 years; and if by reason of strength they are 80, yet it is only labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

    Continuing, Pa Ojetayo said: “I was born on August 6, 1948. I am happy to attain this age despite what happened to me. As I lay on the hospital bed, I asked God to make me see my 70th birthday. Today, I am fulfilled. I wish you all the desires of your heart and God’s blessings on this my special birthday. Thanks for coming.”

    Many people, especially his students paid tributes to him; just as different choirs rendered sonorous songs, specially composed for him.

    The officiating ministers included Pastors M.A. Oyelami; Adesegun Fatusi; E.O Komolafe, Segun Alatise and Pastor (Mrs) O.O Uchegbu.

    The guests were later treated to sumptuous meals and assorted drinks at the reception. They were also given different kinds of souvenirs.

     

  • Retiree sues fund manager, over alleged agreement breach 

    Retiree sues fund manager, over alleged agreement breach 

    …seek over N35 million refunds

     

    Retiree of one of the leading Multinational companies in Rivers State; Aniedi Inokon has sued the authorities and management of Cashcraft Asset Management Limited for over alleged breach of investment agreement.

    In the suit number PHC/1137/17 dated April 24, 2017 and filed before Justice Margret Opara of Rivers state High Court is seeking the sum of N35.5 million claim from the fund manager.

    According to the statement of claim sighted by newsmen represents the total annuity accrued from his N20 million retirement benefit he invested with the firm for his two children education abroad and for his wife, in whose he  also reportedly registered part of the investment .
    The suit was between the Plaintiff (Inokon), and Cashcraft Asset management Limited and three others, suspected to be the authorities and management of the cash investment company.

    When the matter was mentioned in court Tuesday, the respondents, defendants were not in court, they were not also represented.

    The Plaintiff, through his Lawyer, Christian O.  Ezeibe told the court that wright of summon had been served on parties in the matter and expressed surprise in their absence.

    According to him, while Cashcraft as an entity was served by way of hand in its Port Harcourt office along Port Harcourt/ Aba expressway, it was the actual place the transaction was made, it’s management personnel joined in the suit were served in accordance with the court order of way of courier services.

    But the court noted that there was no prove of service effected before the court. She said that the court belief that made the service did not note the person at the Aba road office that received the service on its behalf, and ordered that the service be regularised.

    She adjoined the case till November 22 for prove of service and hearing.

  • LASPOTECH retirees need Ambode’s help  

    As the Lagos State Governor, Mr. AkinwumiAmbode, prepares to grace the next convocation of the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) coming up in a few days, it is pertinent to bring to his notice, the suffering of some retirees of the polytechnic whose pensions and gratuities have been unjustly withheld by the management of the polytechnic and some government officials for the past 10 months.

    This set of retirees, numbering about 150, both academic and non-academic staff, was last paid their pensions in May 2016, about 10 months ago, and part of their gratuities have been withheld since they retired from the polytechnic in 2010.

    Because of this act on the part of the current Lagos State Polytechnic management, the retirees have been going through indescribable agony in the last 10 months. Some have had their children withdrawn from schools on account of their inability to pay their children’s school fees, while some, who were suffering from one ailment or the other, have been unable to cater for their health needs. In fact, about five of the retirees have been reported dead on account of their inability to take care of their health.

    The current polytechnic management headed by the Rector, Mr. YinkaSogunro, in collusion with the Auditor-General of the State who wrote a spurious letter, at the instance of the School management, without notice, suddenly stopped the payment of pensions to the retirees who left the polytechnic en masse in 2010 and who had been paid regularly since December 2010 up till May 2016 when they were yanked off the payroll.

    The excuse of the Auditor-General of the State in writing a letter to the School management to stop the payment of pensions to the 2010 set of retirees was that she had discovered, after six years that the pensioners’ retirement was allegedly irregular. But this excuse is not only spurious, it is fallacious.

    The genesis of the mass retirement of both the academic and non-academic staff from the polytechnic began in 2007 when the Lagos State Government, under Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, passed a new pension law, the Pension Reform Act/Contributory Pension Scheme of 2007 in the state. The law stipulates that workers should enroll with private pension providers whereby a monthly deduction would be made from their salaries with equal contribution from the State Government into each individual employee’s account with the private pension providers.

    There was, however, a caveat to the law which states that civil servants who were eligible to pensions under the old scheme, but who did not wish to participate in the new pension scheme, have the option of exiting from the service in three years after the promulgation of the Act i.e. 2010. All such employees who wished to continue with the old pension scheme were expected to leave the service of the polytechnic by June 2010. All those who wanted to go with the old pension scheme with the State Government wrote letters of retirement to the then polytechnic management which were duly acknowledged by the management.

    However, because of the usual unstable academic calendar in the polytechnic, as in other higher institutions in Nigeria, the then polytechnic management wrote the retirees that since academic engagement rules stipulated that lecturers could not leave before the end of a session, all academic staffers were mandated to defer their exit till November 30, 2010 when the academic calendar for that year would end. It is on account of their exit in November 2010 that the retirees are now being victimised and unjustly denied their pensions and part of their gratuities.

    When the academic staff were retiring in 2010, their gratuities were paid and calculated based on an old salary scale for polytechnic workers while the State Government had already approved that the polytechnic management should start paying a new salary scale to its staff since January 2009, but as at the time of the exit of this set of retirees, the polytechnic had not started paying its staff, until 2012 when the staff, including the 2010 retirees were duly paid arrears of salaries from February 2009 to sometime in 2012. Those who had retired in 2010 were paid their salary arrears up till the time of their exit on November 30, 2010.

    The pension payment of this set of retirees was also adjusted upward by the last management of the polytechnic since they were supposed to have earned the money from February 2009 up till the point of their exit on November 30, 2010. But since their gratuities were based on the old scale, the 2010 retirees logically asked for the balance of their gratuities based on the new scale, which successive managements of the polytechnic have refused to pay on account of non-availability of funds.

    Constant reminders to the current polytechnic management to pay these arrears, plus pension arrears, became a thorn in their flesh and led them to engineer the complete stoppage of the pensions of both academic and non-academic staff numbering about 150 persons.

    The retirees have exhausted all peaceful means to get back their rights all to no avail. The Governing Council appears to be helpless in this case as it has also been held captive by the school management which wants to continue claiming the money from the Government without paying those who ought to be paid.  They see the retirees as weak, vulnerable and helpless and want to cheat them out of their rights after serving the State with all their energy in their youthful years.

    Already, the Office of the Head of Service had set up a panel to look into the issue comprising the Lagos State Pension Commission, the State Ministry of Justice, the Polytechnic Management, representatives of the retirees etc, and the panel had submitted its report, but the Office of the Head of Service has been sitting on the report for more than three months now while the retirees continue to languish.

    It is the prayer of these suffering retirees that Governor Ambode should, as a matter of urgency, wade into this case and order the release of the pensions and gratuities of these innocent souls who have been put through unnecessary agony in the past 10 months.

     

    • Owolabi, a public commentator, lives in Ikorodu

  • Retiree held for neighbour’s death

    The police have arraigned a 68-year-old retiree, Alade Akeredolu, before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates’ Court for alleged murder.

    Akeredolu allegedly pushed his neighbour, Fatai Taiwo, 61, to death. The incident happened at Gbasemo Street, Aga, Ikorodu, Lagos.

    Prosecuting Sergean, Kehinde Omisakin told the court that the accused committed an offence punishable under Section 221 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2015.

    “The accused, it was learnt, always held morning devotion with his family by 5 O’clock. It was learnt that the deceased’s wife complained that the noise affected them while sleeping.

    “An argument ensued between the two families which led to a fight. But the accused was said to have pushed the deceased to death. The incident occurred on January 29 around 6am,” the prosecutor said.

    Magistrate T.A. Elias changed the charge against the accused to manslaughter.

    Elias adjourned the matter till March 20.

  • How apprentice driver killed OAU 70-yr-old retiree with TOTAL-labelled tanker

    How apprentice driver killed OAU 70-yr-old retiree with TOTAL-labelled tanker

    I wept bitterly seeing my husband’s intestines packed in a bowl, says widow
    TOTAL: our transporter is in talks with the family

    Emure-Ile community near Owo, Ondo State, was in sad mood last Saturday as the remains of Chief Samuel Ojo Adewale, an illustrious son of the community and erstwhile Chief Technologist of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, were interred amid tears.

    Adewale was knocked down by a 33,000-litre tanker trailer believe to  belong to major oil marketing company, Total, a few weeks to his 70th birthday. The said trailer was said to have been driven by a motor boy who was learning driving at the time the accident occurred.

    Until his death, the late Adewale was said to have worked as a special marshal with the Osun Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps. More than 500 marshals of the FRSC and scores of Adewale’s former colleagues at OAU, where he retired in 2007 after serving in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology for 29 years, were among the numerous sympathisers that thronged Our Saviour’s Anglican Church, Emure-Ile, to pay the deceased Baba Ijo of the church their last respects.

    Eyewitness account

    Ironically, his death was said to have resulted from reckless use of the highway, a phenomenon he had campaigned vigorously against as a special marshal. On June 3, a tanker with registration number FFA 678 XA, bearing the logo of TOTAL and loaded with 33,000 litres of petrol, was said to have veered off its lane at Ipetu-Ijesa, a border town between Ondo and Osun States, crushing Adewale to death. Parts of his body were said to have been spilled on the road at the section where Owena Market is located.

    The deceased’s widow, Mrs. Olumide Adewale, said she was returning with her husband from his Emure-Ile home town to their base in Ile- Ife when the accident occurred.

    She said: “There were only two of us in the Volvo car with registration number FFE 40 AA. We were coming from Emure-Ile, Owo, where we had gone to celebrate the Ero (age grade) Festival, which he had been taking part in since 2007.

    “It was on June 3. When we got to Owena Market, he packed completely off the road to buy some yams for the people at home. I even told him that the yam would be expensive because they were usually brought in from Abuja, but he went while I remained in the car.

    “As he came back and opened the car door, the truck veered from the other side of the road and knocked him down. It ran over him and dragged him along until it ran into a container shop that also fell on the vehicle I was seated in. By the time sympathisers managed to drag me out of the car, my clothes were torn, my ribs were broken and my legs were fractured. The Volvo car was also badly damaged.

    “I could not stand up, but I managed to call the Road Safety. Some oncoming vehicles were also affected. I was later told that some other people also died.

    “The young boy who drove the vehicle was said to be learning driving with the actual driver of the trailer seated beside him. I later managed to call my brother-in-law and my son and his wife who are medical doctors.

    “The FRSC officials came and I was rushed to the Casualty Ward of  the Wesley Hospital and later to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife where I was admitted for three weeks.

    “When I sighted my husband’s corpse after three weeks, I broke into tears. All his internal organs were packed in a bowl, whereas they had earlier told me that he was receiving treatment in another ward of the hospital where I was admitted, but I could not go to see him because I could not walk.

    “The trailer is still at Ipetu-Ijesa Police Station.”

    Asked what the last words of his husband were, she said: “I saw him being pressed down by the front tyre of the trailer and he was shouting, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’  Those were his last words. I believe that was when his stomach burst. You needed to see the ugly sight.”

    She recalled that she too could have been killed if she had entered the market with her deceased husband. “I had actually loosened my seat belt and was about to come down, but he said I should wait. If I had gone with him, the trailer could have killed the two of us,” she said.

    The late Adewale’s son and OAU lecturer, Ayodele, recalled that he was in the lecture room with his Electrical Engineering students on June 3 when he got a phone call from one Mrs. Ojo that his parents were involved in an accident.

    “The woman works at OAUTH (Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospita) Ile-Ife. Of course, I knew that my parents would be coming to Ife after they had travelled home. I drove down to Ilesha and asked what went wrong,

    “When I got to Wesley Hospital about 20 minutes later, some Road Safety corps members came and I saw my mum seated in the back of their vehicle and was being taken to the emergency hall.

    “Unfortunately, I saw them going to the morgue again and I suspected that my father had died. I followed them and later went to my mum to help them stabilise her and then took her to Ile-Ife for better treatment.

    “The following morning, my medical doctor brother and I drove to Ipetu-Ijesa to see what had happened and also retrieve my parents’ personal effects. It was here that one of the people, who witnessed the scene and took photographs with their cell phones, showed me how the front tyre of the tanker trailer rested on my father’s waist.

    “I asked my younger brother to take the pictures of the scene. After an hour, I saw a towing van going to the front of the TOTAL truck with 33,0000 litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) and was about to tow the vehicle. I resisted and an argument followed.

    “I started calling my brothers who are medical doctors and our lawyer. I now waited to see the driver of the truck to give an explanation, but a young man came and said that the vehicle belonged to TOTAL and they would like to empty its contents because they would be losing money. I was furious.

    “When they saw that we were upset, they went to the police station to tell the police to come and plead with us. These men were about 32, 33 years of age. When they came with the police, saying they were sorry, I told them that they should arrange to see the family.

    “The DTO came up to plead with us to allow them take away the vehicle to avoid more accidents and prevent irate mob from burning down the truck. I heeded their plea because I am a simple man.

    “We all rode down to Ipetu-Ijesa Police Station where the police told me that I should assume that my father died a natural death; that I should take it as his fate. This annoyed me the more. They thought they were talking to fools.

    “They said that the trailer was loaded with 33,000 litres of PMS and that somebody could smoke a cigarette by its side and cause a disaster or some hoodlums could siphon the contents. And if left there, they would be losing money on a daily basis.

    “In fact, some boys had earlier come and wanted to set it ablaze but I pleaded with them not to. They pleaded to take it away from the road and I accepted. On that note, I allowed them to take the contents and move the truck away from the road to avoid another accident.

    “I also removed all my parents’ personal effects from the Volvo car and left it at the police station.

     

    Twists to the story

    “But later at the police station, the story changed. The DTO started singing another song. He told the truck driver and his apprentice to relax; that he would settle it. This shocked me to the marrow. I was surprised that a Nigerian policeman would say this and it made me to lose confidence in him. Since then, the case has been on.

    “While I was agitating that they should not take away the truck, a man who identified himself as a senior official of TOTAL, came to inspect the scene of the accident.

    “I went up to him and he said he was sent to ascertain what had happened. His personal assistant was taking down notes. He gave me his number and I was shocked when he said that the truck on which TOTAL was inscribed actually did not belong to TOTAL but one Mr. Ufot.

    “Later, they said it was owned by Real Gold Company. But I don’t want to know Real Gold or Ufot.

    “We will soon go to court. But you know that the courts have not been working for some time. When they resume, we will file our case as we have contacted our lawyer.

    “What pained us most is the way and manner the owners of the truck and the police are treating the case; that nothing will happen. Imagine a Nigerian police officer conniving with suspects that killed over 10 people.”

    The first born of the deceased, Dr. Abiodun Adewale, a medical doctor at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State, also accused the police of trying to compromise its investigation.

    Dr. Adewale, who claimed that the man who drove the truck was an apprentice and that the vehicle’s particulars had expired, said: “The DTO wrote ‘brake failure’ and I asked him whether he could prove it. I asked whether he had called the VIO to inspect it. How can you be sitting here under a tree, writing in a relaxed mood and saying it is brake failure?

    “Let’s ask a sincere question. The driver was going straight and had brake failure. There was a ditch but he did not go there. It was brake failure that made him to swerve?”

    However, the Corporate Affairs Manager of Total Nigeria  Plc, Albert Mabuyaku, who confirmed that the  truck which killed the deceased, belongs to a  transporter with the company, denied that the driver was an apprentice.

    He said: “That information is not correct; the driver was trained in our transport school in Ibadan, Oyo State, and has  a valid driver’s licence.”

    Mabuyaku also told The Nation that the transporter was already talking with the aggrieved family.

    According to him, “The family is making a claim of N6 million, whereas she (transporter) is offering N2 million, which the family is not willing to accept.  I know that they are talking.”

    The Police Public Relations Officer in Osun State, Mrs. Folasade Odoro, said the allegations against the police were not true. She said the police was not a Vehicle Inspection Officer (VIO) to determine the state of the truck as at the time of the auto crash.

    According to her: “What the police can do in this situation is to recommend the case to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for advice and with the police investigation and the VIO report, the case can be charged to court.”

    She disclosed that the suspect (the errant driver) had been charged to court for dangerous driving, causing the death of people and causing damage to property. She also said that the case the last time it came up in court was adjourned till September 29 for further hearing, while the case file had been sent to to DPP for legal advice.

  • Retiree urges govt to employ more teachers

    Retiree urges govt to employ more teachers

    After 35 years of meritorious service in teaching in public primary schools, Mr Gabriel Olusola Igbayilola, bade farewell to his beloved profession last week.

    The former head teacher of Ajeromi Central Nursery and Primary School, Ajegunle, Lagos State, however, wishes that the government would employ more teachers for the school, and improve teachers’ welfare across board.

    Igbayilola, who retired as a Director of Education, said during his ‘pen down’ceremony held at the school, said the government should replace teachers that are retiring with new ones.

    “The government needs to employ more teachers because we are retiring. They are not bringing in new teachers, this children are suffering, no body to manage them. This school needs up to five teachers and the same thing is happening all over. The government has to do something about this otherwise the standard of education will fall drastically,” he said.

    Igbayilola also urged the state government to improve the salaries of teachers.

    “Where I want them to improve is on the salary of teachers, because the salary doesn’t take us home though they call it take home pay,” he said.

    Despite the poor pay, Igbayilola said he was fulfilled as a teacher.

    “If you are thinking about the money you will not be a teacher. The passion and joy I derive in teaching this children is what kept me going. I have achieved a lot and in facts I have no regret being a teacher, it is not the monetary aspect of teaching that matters to me, but the characters we are moulding. It’s a great achievement and am happy when I see most of them outside.”

    He urged the government to resume the payment of leave allowances.

    “I want them to go back to the former system where they usually give us once in November or December. They give us and we use it for January because January is the longest month in the year, because it looks like three months in a year so if they go back to that system by giving us our leave allowance once, the teachers will be happy,” he said.