Some retirees who receive their pensions from the African Alliance Insurance Plc have expressed frustration due to the non-payment of their pensions since January 2024.

Recall that in July, the National Insurance Commission had directed the board of the company to address and settle all outstanding claims from their customers and submit a turnaround plan for addressing their challenges.

Meanwhile, in August, the Executive Director (Technical) of the company, Wasiu Amao, said that the firm was working on the turnaround plan as directed by the NIC.

This was even as some customers expressed dissatisfaction over the company’s failure to meet their demands.

Speaking to Saturday PUNCH, Omotayo Clement, who retired from the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure in 2015, said the company had failed to pay him his benefits.

He stated that life had become challenging for him and his family after four months without payment.

Clement added that he had been borrowing money from friends and family, but their patience was wearing thin as he struggled to repay them.

He said, “I haven’t been paid for over four months now. I didn’t receive any payment in March. It was only in April that I got paid. Things have been very difficult, and I have been borrowing from people, who are tired of lending me money. The country is very hard; even paying house rent is a big problem. I cannot do anything because I had an accident which cost me my leg. Since 2007, I have not been able to work or do anything. It’s very terrible.

“If you knew me before, you wouldn’t recognise me now. My wife also had a stroke, and as I’m speaking to you, she is lying on the floor, unable to work. We manage with the little we are collecting and I have to rely on one of my daughters. As a result, we collect food items on credit, and even our neighbours are tired of giving us items on credit.”

The retiree added that his attempts to reach African Alliance Insurance by phone had been futile, as they had not been answering his calls.

He said, “They haven’t been picking up any calls. The only time they answered my call was in early April, but nothing was done. All they said was that I should be patient. Since then, whenever I call, they don’t say anything. There was a time some of my colleagues went to the Ikoyi office, but I couldn’t go because of my leg. They went to the office and were paid for April only. Since then, there has been no communication.”

Also speaking, another retiree of the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Solomon Oyedele, said that the current economic challenges had been affecting him seriously.

He stated that It felt as though the company had written them off.

Oyedele said, “For those of us who don’t work, surviving this economic hardship is a major challenge. Maybe they think we are dead or expect us to have died, so they don’t expect us to live this long. At one point, they called us to come for verification. I said we also have verification, though it is not related to government matters. They told us it was an indemnity for life. They took our passports and collected some money, but now, they are not paying us. I wrote to them about what we were facing.

“They started defaulting in January. It took some time before they paid for February. We had to visit the Lagos State Pension Commission to inform them, and they said they would contact the company. They contacted them and spoke with them, so they paid for February and March. Since March, payments have stopped again. We went back to the Lagos State Pension Commission, which gave us a telephone number. We called, and they kept saying we should be patient and that payment would come. The Lagos State Pension Commission said if we were not paid, they would escalate the issue to Abuja. When I called again, they said they had reported the issue to Abuja and had a meeting about it. To the best of my knowledge, about six of us are facing this challenge.”

However, all efforts to get the African Alliance Insurance PLC to speak on the matter proved abortive. Calls put across to the company were neither answered nor returned.

Also, emails and text messages sent by our correspondent were not responded to as of the time of filing this report. (Saturday PUNCH)

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