• Family pleads with LASACO for late mother’s insurance benefits
By Funke Busari
Under normal circumstances, 10 years should be enough time to process documents, especially documents dealing with the entitlements of a deceased local government worker.
Sadly, the children of late Tawa Ayede, a former worker with the Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State, have found out that this isn’t usually the case. For 10 agonising years, they have been trying to process their deceased mother’s documents, so as to get her final entitlements and benefits processed. They have since discovered that retrieving a deceased woman’s benefits from the local government council, from the ministry or from the insurance company could be harder than forcing a camel through the eye of the needle.
Mrs Tawa Ayede was offered a temporary appointment as a street sweeper by the Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State with effect from November 1, 2000. The letter dated October 30 2000 and signed by the Head of Personal Management simply identified as J.A Shittu on behalf of the Chairman, placed her monthly salary at N3,500.
And thus began the journey with the Agege Local Government and the Lagos State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. Due to her due diligence at work and dedication to duty, her appointment was confirmed via a letter dated September 20, 2007.
A letter duly signed by the Human Resources Officer, Jelili Jimoh described Mrs Ayede Tawa’s new title as Health Attendant G.L. 02, at Orile Agege Local Council Development Area.
Progressively, she was getting promotion and raise in salary.
On January 1, 2012 Mrs. Tawa Ayede was promoted to Head, Health Attendant GL 04 coupled with salary increment.
By August, 2011, her monthly salary was around N36,880.44. But on December 31, 2013, the unexpected happened. Mrs. Tawa Ayede died of what medical reports described as Septicaemia and cardiac arrest as primary and secondary causes respectively.
After the mourning period, her employer was dully notified and the process to get her entitlements began.
This is the area where her children began to have issues with the authorities.
Saturday Sun was told that the authorities have not been forthcoming with facts about the woman’s entitlements. Exasperated with the authorities and their attitude to the issue of processing her late mother’s benefits, one of her children, Mrs. Rukayat Sulaimon (nee Ayede) took the case to Saturday Sun and wanted an intervention in their case.
She said the children have done all what they could to get a closure via the payment of their mother’s entitlements, but all to no avail. The lady also presented some documents to back her claims.
Some of the documents itemised the correspondences between the family and Orile-Agege Local Government.
One of the documents was dated October 6, 2015. It was entitled’ RE: NOTICE OF RETIREMENT FROM UNIFIED LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE – MRS AYEDE TAWA, HEAD HEALTH MANAGEMENT, GRADE LEVEL 04
According to the letter, her Oracle number is 80782. The letter was addressed to the Chairman, Primary Health Care Board, 5, Taylor Drive, Yaba, Lagos for necessary action.
As a follow-up on November 16, 2015 another letter was forwarded to the Director General, Lagos Pension Board, Plot 2A, Hakeem Balogun Way, C.B.D, Alausa, Ikeja. The letter forwarded her details for necessary action.
However, the children said they encountered an obstacle when it was discovered that the payroll department had been paying the salary of the deceased even after her death. Available papers, the children noted, showed that the deceased was paid 12 months’ salaries even after her demise. The money totalled N293, 508.33.
The children would later discover that it was one of the deceased’s children that had been withdrawing and spending the money. When confronted, the culprit explained that the money was being spent for educational purposes in the university.
But one of the deceased woman’s children, Rukayat, who is an older sibling, stepped in. She got loans and paid back the money. She first paid N63,000.00 and another N104,000.00 to Orile-Agege Local Council Development Area.
This was confirmed by Mr. Lamai Mcwen, Director (Planning Research & Development For PS/Auditor-General for Local Government.
To this end, the local government processed all her entitlements domiciled with the council and Mrs. Rukayat confirmed that to Saturday Sun.
Meanwhile, processing the deceased insurance with LASACO Life Assurance Company Limited is another hurdle yet to be crossed by the children of the deceased. And it is giving the supposed beneficiaries cause for concern.
Mrs. Rukayat Sulaimon told Saturday Sun that all efforts to get this claim paid by LASACO has not been successful.
This reporter tried to seek reaction from LASACO by visiting its office located within what appears to be a prefabricated building at the Lagos State Secretariat Complex, Alausa. But the reporter was told that one Mrs. Yemi Ajani whose contact was listed on the company’s website was out of town and would not be returning anytime soon.
One of those met in the building asked for this reporter’s mission and after explaining to him, he advised for a visit to the Lagos State Ministry of Finance, also within the Alausa Secretariat as he informed that the ministry could be of assistance in sorting out issues related to the claim of not being able to access the deceased’s entitlements.
But a visit to the ministry also yielded no fruits. Upon getting to the Finance Department of the ministry, a certain Mr. Kehinde Akinloye attended to this reporter. He took the reporter to yet another civil servant who identified himself as Mr. Olanrewaju Akosile.
At a brief meeting with the officials, including two other officers, who are women, tyhe officials requested to see the details of the deceased’s employment to enable them to assist in finding solution to the claim.
However, Mr. Akinloye informed that the issue was not within the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry. He suggested that the reporter visit the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs located in T-Block building within the Alausa Secretariat too.
At the State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, this reporter was told that a certain Mrs. Adekola was the official to meet for enquiries about the deceased’s entitlement status. The female official, the reporter was told, was, however said to be unavailable at the time of the visit.
According to two officials met in the office – a man at the reception desk and a woman – the officer had just stepped out.
Attempts by Saturday Sun to get Mrs. Adekola’s phone contact were frustrated by the officers in the office, who said they could not do that without the woman’s consent.
Another woman told the reporter that the officer was indeed absent from the office at that material time. She asked the reporter to return for further enquiries in another two weeks, after the immediate past Sallah holiday. She said the said officer must have returned to the company after the Sallah break.
At the time of filing this report, there has been no word yet about the deceased’s entitlements.