A legal battle between a multinational company and the Lagos State Government’s Office of the Public Defender, has brought succour to the way of the widow of a worker who died in active duty while working for the multinational company based in Warri, Delta State.
According to the OPD’s spokesperson, Mr. Adeoba Adeniji-Adele, the company finally agreed to compensate Mrs. Silas Ibe (not real name) to the tune of N80m.
Adeniji-Adele said this would be the largest singular amount ever recovered on behalf of a victim since 2000 when the office was established to fight for the rights of individuals.
However, the agency could not disclose the details of the circumstances which led to the death of Ibe’s husband and neither could it give the name of the company and the victim as a result of a confidentiality agreement involved.
Adeniji-Adele said, “The case came about when the wife of the victim walked into our office with the complaint that upon the death of her husband, she had been finding it difficult to make claims on behalf of her two children for her husband’s entitlements.
“To make matters worse, her husband’s family was also giving her problems, claiming rights to any entitlement accruing from their son’s services to the company.”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that after reviewing the case, the OPD Director, Mrs. Omotola Rotimi, dispatched a team of counsels to intervene in the matter.
A breakthrough finally came few days ago when the company agreed on the amount to accrue to the family of the deceased.
Mrs. Ibe, who was thankful that the victory has brought respite the way of her children and herself, said, “I am most grateful to the OPD for fighting for my children’s right as well as mine. At the beginning of this fight, we all faced so many obstacles, but through the grace of God and the OPD, we surmounted them all.”
Reacting to the outcome of the case, Rotimi said her office would always take on any case of injustice, whether it involved a large sum of money or small.
She explained that the agency exists for all those unable to afford lawyers to seek redress in our courts.
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