Published 8th Mar, 2024

By Emmanuel Uti

Retired staff of the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) residents in the staff quarters in Emole GRA, Enugu State, have lambasted the organisation for ejecting them out of the quarters while owing their gratuity.

One of the disgruntled retirees told FIJ that the residents had asked NIPOST to sell the property to them but the organisation instead leased the property to a developer who would manage it for another 25 years.

She also accused the department of NIPOST’s property and works in Abuja of leasing the property without the management’s notice and selling other properties to the highest bidder.

The former staff, who asked to be anonymous, said that she had no place to go because she’d been resident in the building for some time and, like many retirees, had no money to rent a place elsewhere.

“Housing is expensive, and with no money, where else should we go? They gave us N250,000, but it did not suffice. Since I retired in February 2023, the commission has yet to pay my gratuity, and this is after 35 years of service, yet I am still poor,” she told FIJ.

Another aggrieved retiree told FIJ that since some people from the NIPOST works and property department notified them to leave last November, she’d been uneasy because she had no money to survive.

She said that the N250,000 NIPOST paid her after the quit notice could not help her with her rent because immediately after they paid her, they also deducted the rent owed since 2015.

“I’m the only one living in my section of the quarters, and there’s been no light. What was left after they deducted the rent owed from the N250,000 was chicken feed. I need my gratuity,” she said.

When FIJ contacted Nneka, NIPOST’s land officer, she said she would not comment on the matter because she was not sure she was speaking to a real journalist.

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