A retired employee of United Africa Company of Nigeria(UACN) Mr. Gabriel Emmanuel Iduh has written the office of the attorney general of the federation, seeking the payment of his employee contributory pension scheme savings being withheld by Pension Commission(PencCom).
The complainant stated that he resigned his employment from UACN primarily so he could go into business but has been unable to do so due to PenCom’s refusal to release his entitlement.
Mr. Iduh cited the African human and people’s rights ratification charter as his basis for the alleging the infringement of his human rights by PenCom. Charter 1 to 6 states-
Article 1
The Member States of the Organisation of African Unity parties to the
present Charter shall recognise the rights, duties and freedom
enshrined in this Charter and shall undertake to adopt legislative or
other measures to give effect to them.
Article 2
Every individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and
freedom recognised and guaranteed in the present Charter without
distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status.
Article 3
1. Every individual shall be equal before the law.
2. Every individual shall be entitled to equal protection of the law.
Article 5
Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity
inherent in a human being and to the recognition of his legal status.
All forms of exploitation and degradation of man particularly slavery,
slave trade, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and
treatment shall be prohibited.
Article 6
Every individual shall have the right to liberty and to the security of his
person. No one may be deprived of his Freedom except for reasons
and conditions previously laid down by law. In particular, no one may be arbitrarily arrested or detained.
However, in a letter dated 19th October 2019, with a reference number SDO/SC/061/V/93 addressed to Mr. Iduh, SERVICOM attached a response from the office of the Attorney General’s office, from whom they had earlier contacted for legal advice in view of Mr. Iduh’s allegation of the infringement of his fundamental human rights.
According to the documents viewed by Switch Nigeria, the AG’s office in turn sought clarification from SERVICOM who responded in a letter dated 21st August 2019 with reference number PenCom/DG/CSLD/LDR/2019/286 wherein the commission stated that Mr. Iduh who voluntarily retired from UACN did not disclose his period of employment, date of retirement and if he has accessed any portion of his retirements benefits, which is usually pegged at 25% first installment paid to retirees, who do not secure another employment within 4 months according to section 7 (2) of the 2014 Pension Reformed Act(PRA).
Servicom also cited section 7 (3) of PRA 2014, which states that the retiree must have attained the age of 50 to qualify for a full payment of his benefits if he’s unable to secure employment within 4 months.
A letter from Human Rights Service commission, whom Mr Iduh had written earlier, urged the complainant to take the matter to court for determination.
