Widow petitions Buhari over husband’s benefit

By Usman Ibn A. Lapai

Kaduna

The wife of late Mr. Emmanuel Idoko Ebiega, Mary Enaly, has petitioned President Mohammadu Buhari over the nonpayment of her husband’s death benefit.
According to the petition which was made available to Blueprint, Mr. Ebiega had worked for Ahmadu Bello University ( ABU), Zaria for 33 years before he died on 5th July, 2013.
“My husband worked for 33 years and died in the office on 5th of July, 2013. After his death, my children and I have been facing embarrassment, ranging from ejection from the residential quarters to being pushed out of the health insurance scheme to payment of rents, school fees and as a result we are bleeding financially.
“Your Excellency Sir, it will interest you to know that my family is not alone in this as most of the bereaved families in this institution have been subjected to several afflictions and pains due to the non-payment of death benefits of the bread winners. As if that was not enough, some heartless cabals at the office of the Head of Service have constituted themselves to extorting money from bereaved families who are already frustrated with the deceit of processing their loved ones’ death benefits,” she said.
According to her, the families had sought for interventions through the University which has written several letters of appeal to the Head of Civil Service but to no avail.
She said the state governor, Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai, had also intervened by writing but to no avail, explaining that, “after four years we were still told that the federal government has not released funds for the death benefits, but the question here is, how long should we wait?”

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