A group of 2022 retirees from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have cried out over what they described as their “deliberate exclusion in the proper payment of terminal benefits and entitlements” by the management of the commission.
In the letter, signed by Comrade Olukayode Joseph, the group coordinator of the Joint NIMC Pensioners, the aggrieved retirees alleged that after serving 35 years meritoriously in the agency, they were denied their due benefits under the approved NIMC Condition of Service, which they claimed was endorsed by the Nigerian government in 2021.
The letter, titled “SOS Letter and Special Appeal for Intervention Into the Plights of 2022 Retired Staff/Employees of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Over Deliberate Exclusion in the Proper Payment of Terminal Benefits/Entitlements”, was addressed to “Comrade Omoyele Sowore, prominent human rights activist in Nigeria.”
According to the pensioners, “We humbly write to you our SOS letter, and to report the infringements of our rights, over the deliberate exclusion in the payment of our due Benefits/Entitlement, after our 35 years meritorious Service to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as spelt out in the NIMC Condition of Service.”
The retirees explained that they were pioneers of the NIMC, having been transferred from the defunct Department of National Civic Registration (DNCR) under the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, where they were first employed in 1987 before retiring in 2022.
They stated that the NIMC Condition of Service was finalised in August 2021, with an effective implementation date of September 1, 2021, as indicated on “Page 10 of the aforementioned NIMC Condition of Service.”
“The entire 2022 retired Staff/Employees of the Commission, who were still in the Service of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), signed and delivered to the Management, in the ‘Staff Acknowledgement Form’ contained on page 13 of the NIMC Condition of Service, as agreement to the contents of the Personnel Document, wherefore binding both parties,” the letter added.
However, the retirees said they were shocked when the management of NIMC, in collaboration with the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC), allegedly excluded them from the approved benefits in a letter referenced SWC/S/04/S.493/III/594 dated December 23, 2024.
They stated that their “twice passionate appeal letters” written to the Director-General/CEO of NIMC, Engineer Abisoye Coker-Odusote, on her assumption of office were ignored.
“Our twice passionate appeal letters written to the DG/CEO, NIMC, Engineer Abisoye Coker-Odusote, on her assumption of office, seeking for her intervention, as regards to continuity in governance and requesting for a meeting with the Director General, NIMC, all correspondences were completely ignored,” the retirees lamented.
The group further revealed that their efforts to seek redress through various government institutions, including the Office of the President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, were frustrated and met with “compromise.”
“The parties were invited to a dispute resolution meeting in Abuja by the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour & Employment, so also the Office the Honorable Commissioner, Public Complaints Commission through the Director of Enforcement Unit of the Commission at different period of time, but all the processes were met with compromised and got frustrated afterwards.”
In their appeal to Sowore, the retirees wrote: “We are by this letter calling on you sir to please come to our rescue, so as justice to be enthroned by your urgent intervention to our plights for a redress accordingly.”
They attached several documents to support their petition, including the approved NIMC Condition of Service, the Staff Acknowledgement Form, letters of invitation to mediation meetings at the Federal Ministry of Labour & Employment and the Public Complaints Commission, as well as the minutes of mediation meetings held in Abuja.
The retirees maintained that their exclusion was a clear violation of Section 7(1) of the Labour Act and Section 5(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, both of which recognise workers’ rights to fair compensation and due process.
“We shall gratefully appreciate the prompt acknowledgement of our correspondence to you sir,” the letter concluded.
The aggrieved retirees urged Sowore to intervene and help them recover their withheld entitlements, describing their situation as a “gross injustice meted out to loyal civil servants who gave their best years to the service of the nation.”