“I was sitting on money (as a civil servant) 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.”
These where the words of almost 91 year old Oke-Igbo, Ondo State-born grandfather, Pa Jacob Kehinde Babajide who started his working life in the accounts department of the now defunct Post and Telegrams under the Ministry of Communications on July 10, 1950.
Babajide “said that while he was in service, he was not looking forward to this type of treatment because he didn’t do any funny act, saying: “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.
“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.
Nonagenarian said that nobody had given him any reason for stopping his pension, adding: “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.
“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. [myad]
