Ann: Kaduna orphan who found succour in tyre-manufacturing firm

Worst of all, the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) and the Kaduna State Government where the parents worked respectively have failed to pay the death benefits and entitlements of their parents to them. Our correspondent had an encounter with Ann at the tyre company, where she revealed that  she had to drop out of the university […]

Worst of all, the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) and the Kaduna State Government where the parents worked respectively have failed to pay the death benefits and entitlements of their parents to them.
Our correspondent had an encounter with Ann at the tyre company, where she revealed that  she had to drop out of the university at 300 level to cater for the needs of her three younger siblings, who are dependant on her. She said she earns a salary of N20, 000 and works for hours to make ends meet.
Narrating her ordeal, Ann recounts that she received her father’s dead in total disbelief. “When the news came to me that my father was dead, I did not believe it, I kept thinking it was a dream and would soon wake up from. Unknown to me  more sadness was lurking in the corner as my mother followed my father five months after,  leaving only us.
“I was a 300 level student in the department of Mathematics at the Ahmadu Bello University, but I had to drop out in 2011, when I lost both of my parents to the cruel hands of death, to take care of my younger ones. I have been managing life at a tyre refurbishing company located in the Kakuri area of Kaduna South. The pay is poor and the job is very difficult, but I have to endure since I have no other means of livelihood,” she said.
Asked how she and her siblings have been coping since the demise of their parents, the 32-year-old who is an indigene of Jaba Local Government of Kaduna State said: “It has not been easy for us, things have not been going well for us and it has been very difficult for us, especially for me; I had to drop out of the university to cater for my younger siblings.”
 “I had to stop school so that my younger ones could go to school but even that has been a major battle for me. Anytime school resumes, I am under a lot of pressure because I know I don’t have the money to pay for their school fees, she added.”
Asked about her parent’s relations, she said: “they are doing the little they can. In fact, my uncle is the one who buried both my parents, but unfortunately, while I was looking for help, some people wanted to take advantage of me. When you go to them to ask for help that is when they start making advances at you. I want well-meaning individuals, the government and the society in general to look at our plight and lend a helping hand. I know we are not the only orphans and we are not the only people who need help; all we are asking is for a little succour to ease the suffering we have been passing through since the demise of our parents. We also plead that our parents entitlements should be given to us as it will go a long way in training my young siblings in school.”
 Remembering her late parents, Ann said: “My mother was a senior librarian with the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, until her death, and my father was the head of the finance department at the Kaduna State Transport Authority and we have not been paid any of their entitlements, even their death benefits and their burial expenses that they said would be paid have not been paid up till now.
 On if she made attempts to meet the authorities involved in her parents benefits, she said: “The ABU management has been toying with me, sometimes they tell me to wait at Arewa House and at the end of the day they would ask me to go back to the school. I have all the document they asked me to get including court affidavit, administrative next-of-kin and declaration of next-of-kin and all the write-ups they asked me to do, I have done them but it has not yielded result. At my father’s place of work, sometimes, when I go there I get assaulted by some of the men there, that is why I stopped going there.”
 It could be recalled the widows and bereaved family members of deceased staff of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, had recently, while addressing a press conference, decried the non-payment of the benefits of their relatives who worked with the institution and died in active service in 2009.
When contacted, Adamu Muhammad of the Public Affairs department of ABU said the institution was not responsible for paying the pensions. “We have an established pension administrator which ABU pays pension to. They are not problems associated with the pension, maybe there is a problem with the next-of-kin or something.
“What she said about her dropping out of school because her parents died is a lie. How can her mother be a staff of the institution and just because she does not have the funds to register she will not be allowed to register, it is a false accusation and I do not believe that story because I know ABU will find a way of footing the bills of her education,” he said.