The family of a deceased lecturer, Thomas Babawale, has accused the National Pension Commission of refusing to pay his gratuity.
PUNCH Metro gathered that until Babawale’s death in 2011, he was a senior lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, and was on a pension scheme with the Stanbic IBTC.
After he died, his family reportedly commenced the process of collecting his gratuity and in 2013, it was learnt that they received N3.6m and were informed of a balance of N3m.
Not satisfied by the amount stated, the family’s lawyer petitioned PenCom for a re-evaluation, but the commission reportedly declined response.
Thereafter, Babawale’s family employed the service of an independent pension evaluator to calculate the actual amount owed for the 30 years and four months he worked.
The evaluator was said to have discovered that his gratuity was N9.6m, and that after PenCom paid N3.6m to the family, it still owed N6m as against the N3m stated.
In one of the petitions dated May 18, 2022, the family’s lawyer, Toheeb Adeagbo, said the commission had yet to actuate the payment of the further re-conciliated accrued pension right and contribution of the deceased lecturer.
In another petition dated June 7, 2022, Adeagbo said, “Consequent upon the application by the intending claimants, the sum of N3,655,717 was paid into the deceased estate’s bank account of Stanbic IBTC bank with account number: 0001310622.
“Seeing the inadequacy in the sum paid by you (the commission), the intending claimants applied for the re-computation of the deceased accrued benefits via a letter dated March 17, 2017, which the commission did not respond to.
“Due to the failure by the commission to give effect to the said letter dated March 17, 2017, the intending claimants engaged the services of an independent body for the re-computation of the accrued benefits of the deceased.
“The re-computation revealed that the accrued benefits is N8,825,935.12 and the contribution up to March 2011 is N858,365.90 and these give the grand total of N9,684,305.20k.”
PenCom, in response to a pre-action notice dated August 1, 2022, by the family, said, “An appropriate re-computation of the deceased’s benefits has now been made in line with the applicable salary structure.”
It was gathered that the family received the sum of N4.9m six weeks after PenCom’s letter.
However, Adeagbo said the payment still fell short of the N6m balance, adding that PenCom was frustrating the payment of the gratuity.
The lawyer noted that the family was ready to approach the court in a bid to make the commission pay the remaining balance.
The Head of PenCom’s Corporate Communications Department, Abdulqadir Dahiru, said there was indeed an error in the computation, adding that re-computation was done.
He said, “When we first did the computation, the salary scheme that was used was the wrong one. On that basis, we computed accrued rights to be N1.8m; that computation was done in 2015. I discovered that error when I searched the records. The amount of his accrued rights was determined at N6,781,000.
“The difference was determined between that N1.8m paid in 2015 and the N6.7m, and it was N4,893,000. That amount was paid into his account in September 2022 and they withdrew the money. The amount payable to him was determined and the money was credited.
“The deceased worked with a university, so the family should approach the school for the payment of the proceeds of his group life policy. What PenCom is supposed to pay is the amount in his contributions and accrued rights. All of that had been paid. I don’t know what else they want us to do. If they have a specific thing or any outstanding, they should tell us.”
