A 105-year-old machinist, Mr. Albert Adesanwo Esukoya, has cried out over his unpaid pension since 2010.
Esukoya worked in the Nigerian Navy Dockyard, Victoria Island in Lagos as a machinist/technician for 22 years and retired in 1984.
According to him, after retirement, he and few other workers were retained for a few more years.
“My work took me to countries like Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, France, Senegal and South Africa. In fact, I went to South Africa so many times that it became like my backyard,” he said.
He, however, said since he left the service of the Nigerian Navy Dockyard, he has been receiving his pension until 2010 when it was stopped and all efforts to get payment have failed.
“I was collecting N17,800 every three months back then, but since 2010, my pension stopped. I went to Creek Road at Obalende, Secretariat and Victoria Island etc to see if my pension will come out again.
“I also did all the verification exercises, in fact, during one of the exercises I collapsed at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) in Lagos and was revived by people around. I am not a ghost, I am still alive, please help me, don’t let me die,” he cried out.
The centenarian, who said he was never queried throughout his years of service, narrated that he had nine children but only one is alive. He said but for his grandson, Ibukun Abiodun, who has been taking care of him, he would have been dead.
“Abiodun has been a very good grandson, he took me to his house when the worry and thought of my unpaid pension wanted to kill me.
He is a graduate of Business Administration but he sells generators since he lost his job,” Esukoya said.
He appealed to the government to release his pension so that his grandson can have some relief.
