The family of a late teacher, Thomas Babawale, has accused the National Pensions Commission of refusing to pay his tip.

PUNCH Subway gathered that until Babawale’s death in 2011, he was a tenured professor at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, and was in a pension plan with Stanbic IBTC.

After his death, his family reportedly began the process of collecting his tip, and in 2013, it was learned that they received N3.6 million and were informed of a balance of N3 million.

Not satisfied with the amount claimed, the family’s lawyer asked PenCom for a reassessment, but the commission reportedly refused to respond.

Thereafter, Babawale’s family engaged the services of an independent pension evaluator to calculate the actual amount owed for the 30 years and four months he worked.

The assessor was said to have found that his tip was N9.6 million, and that after PenCom paid N3.6 million to the family, he still owed N6 million compared to the N3 million claimed.

In one of the petitions dated May 18, 2022, the family’s lawyer, Toheeb Adeagbo, said the commission had yet to activate the payment of the deceased teacher’s accrued pension entitlement and contribution.

In another petition dated June 7, 2022, Adeagbo said: “Following the request of the claiming suitors, the sum of N3,655,717 was paid into the bank account of the deceased estate of Stanbic IBTC bank with account number: 0001310622.

“Seeing the insufficiency in the amount paid by you (the commission), the claimant suitors requested the recalculation of the accrued deceased benefits through a letter dated March 17, 2017, to which the commission did not respond.

“Because the commission did not give effect to said letter dated March 17, 2017, the claimant suitors hired the services of an independent body to recalculate the accrued benefits of the deceased.

“The recalculation revealed that the accumulated benefits are N8,825,935.12 and the contribution up to March 2011 is N858,365.90 and give a total of N9,684,305.20k.”

PenCom, in response to a pre-action notice dated August 1, 2022 from the family, said: “An appropriate recalculation of decedent’s benefits has now been made in accordance with the applicable salary structure.”

It emerged that the family received the sum of N4.9 million six weeks after PenCom’s letter.

However, Adeagbo said the payment still fell short of the N6m balance, adding that PenCom was thwarting the tip payment.

The attorney noted that the family was ready to approach the court in an attempt to get the commission to pay the remaining balance.

The Head of PenCom’s Corporate Communications Department, Abdulqadir Dahiru, said that there was indeed an error in the calculation, adding that a new calculation was made.

He said: “When we first did the calculation, the salary schedule that was used was the wrong one. On that basis, we calculate the accrued entitlements at N1.8 million; that calculation was done in 2015. I discovered that error when I searched the logs. The amount of your accrued rights was determined to be N6,781,000.

“The difference between the 1.8 million naira paid in 2015 and the 6.7 million naira was determined to be 4,893,000 naira. That amount was credited to their account in September 2022 and they withdrew the money. The amount to be paid was determined and the money was credited.

“The deceased worked with a university, so the family must approach the school to pay the proceeds from their group life policy. What PenCom is supposed to pay is the amount of your contributions and vested rights. All of that had been paid for. I don’t know what else they want us to do. If you have something specific or pending, let us know.”