91 year old pensioner has narrated his sad experience since his pension was abruptly stopped in August 2010.With all of his children married and his wife and best friend of many years ‘gone to be with the Lord’, Pa Jacob Kehinde Babajide’s life has become even quieter these days..Apart from now having to depend squarely on the financial support of his children to survive, the psychological effect of the entire experience has compounded the old man’s agony.
“Nobody gave me any reason for stopping my pension,” “I just noticed that I didn’t get alert from the bank anymore. There is this lady I used to contact at the pension office; she was the one who helped me before they paid me some arrears till August 2010. Since then, I haven’t heard anything.
“When I contacted her again, she said I should bring the copy of my pay slip from the bank. I sent it to her, then she phoned back saying I should bring my first letter of appointment which I received on July 10, 1950. Don’t you see they don’t want to pay the money? Where on earth do they expect me to get the letter? If you calculate very well, I got that letter about 64 years ago.
“She told me that the person she normally contacted said unless I brought that letter, a letter which I got before he was born, they would not pay me. But for my sons and daughters, my condition would have been very terrible.”
The last four years have not been easy for the Oke-Igbo, Ondo State-born grandfather– deprivation and challenges have come in different forms. Though, Babajide told Saturday PUNCH that he has no regrets giving 35 years of his life to serving the nation diligently, this was not the type of retirement he looked forward to while joining the accounts department of the now defunct Post and Telegrams under the Ministry of Communications on July 10, 1950. The situation leaves him deeply worried.
“I have an extension behind my flat, the place is almost crumbling. If this money had come, I could have rebuilt it and be living better. Nowadays I depend only on my children to send me money, when they don’t, I suffer.
“While I was in service, I was not looking forward to this type of treatment because I didn’t do any funny act. I worked as honest as possible. This was not the type of reward I was looking ahead to while I was still working.
“I give glory to God that I had been a Christian before I joined the service and I was honest throughout my time there. I was not like other people who would go to meet the senior men and be doing eye service, no. I simply concentrated on my job.
“During my time there, I was always sent to the most difficult sections especially when there was problem but God always helped me out,” he said.
“I had a colleague, we were both Assistant Chief Accountants and I was in the payment section which took care of any form of payments. I was also controlling the votes that came to the department. The man was in parcel section and people who had complaints on parcels would go to him. Some of them who had claims, we had to refund them.
“So, on different occasions, he brought nine vouchers. When I received them and if there were documents that were supposed to be attached, I would ask him to bring them and I would acknowledge them. When I satisfied myself, I authorised the vouchers and sent them to the post office and our bank in the department. When those vouchers were paid, they did not come to me again.
“It continued like that until one day when I got to the office and a senior investigation officer entered and brought out one of the vouchers. He asked if I authorised it because my signature was on it and I said yes. I told him that by the time the vouchers left my table, the attached documents were also intact but after payment, it didn’t return to me and that I didn’t know what was responsible for that. The man at the parcel department called Mr. Leke was very clever. He ate, drank and spent lavishly and I began to wonder where he got such money from. The senior investigation officer was on that case for a year and eventually took the case to court. The man in the parcel department was found guilty and was jailed for a year without the option of fine.
“After the case, I asked the investigation officer if he confirmed from those whose names were on the vouchers if I had ever seen them before or knew them at all. He said it had nothing to do with me. That was an experience I will never forget.
“I was sitting on money but I never for once thought about stealing from the system. But in my old age when I am supposed to be enjoying the fruit of my labour, it is the system that is now robbing me of happiness. I deserve better than this,” he said.
Babajide, who has a fair knowledge of how some of the crimes are perpetrated, told our correspondent that the non-payment of his monthly stipend is the handiwork of corrupt elements within the system and not as a result of government’s failure.
“It’s been a fairly long time since I left service in 1985 and the people preparing the allowances would have thought that I am dead especially when they look at my age. It is something I know people who pay pension do very well. They would say this man must have died, so let us not pay the money into his account anymore, and they now divert it to their personal accounts.
“So, I am sure they must be paying my pension regularly into one of their accounts thinking that I am dead by now at almost 91. I am not surprised that this type of thing is happening. It is not as if government stopped my pension but somebody is paying it into another person’s account thinking that I am dead.
“I am a Christian and in all things, God says I should give thanks. That I sleep and wake up, I thank God. I go to bed smoothly and He wakes me up full of energy. I am really grateful to God,” he said.
Head of Corporate Communications, Pension Transitional Arrangement Department, Mr. Yusuf Addy, told Saturday PUNCH
“We feel the pains of the old man but the issue is that he might need to tender a genuine affidavit and at least something to show that he once worked at the P and T. Very soon, a comprehensive verification and biometric exercise would take place, after that nobody would be asked to bring any document again.
“So, the man should try to present these items and the matter would be resolved. Nobody is keeping his pension away from him deliberately. We are here to serve the people diligently,” he said.
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