Court Orders University Pension Fund Administrator, PenCom to Refund N5.8m Deducted from Late Professor’s Salary

The Abuja division of the National Industrial Court, has ordered the Nigerian University Pension Management Company Limited (NUPEMCO) and the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to jointly refund N5.81 million to the estate of the late Professor Francis Nzegbulem Onumadu

Justice E. D. Subilim, ruled that the money represented his personal salary deductions and such should not be confiscated by the government.

Justice Subilim ordered both NUPEMCO and PenCon to pay the sum in a judgment delivered on June 23, 2026, in a suit marked NICN /ABJ/01/2024, filed by the duo of Mrs. Chioma Onumadu and Dr. Ijeoma Elaine Onumadu, representing the late Professor’s Estate.

Defendants in the suit were: Nigerian University Pension Management Company Limited, National Pension Commission and Micheal Okpara University Of Agriculture.

Justice Subilim in his judgment held that “the estate of the deceased professor was entitled to recover the 7.5 per cent employee pension contributions deducted from his salary during his contract employment at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, between 2005 and 2021.”

The Claimants, Mrs. Onumadu and Dr. Elaine Onumadu, through their lawyers, Aduojo Abah Esq., with U. J. Onoja Esq., had argued that although the late professor was exempt from the Contributory Pension Scheme because he was already receiving pension under the Defined Benefit Scheme, his personal salary deductions could not lawfully be forfeited.

The judge while agreed with the Claimants’ held that PenCom was entitled to reclaim the employer’s matching contribution that had been paid in error, but had no legal authority to seize the employee’s own contributions, describing such action as ‘an unlawful confiscation of earned wages’.

Justice Subilim also ruled that salary earned by a worker is a constitutionally protected proprietary right and cannot be withheld simply because the employee was mistakenly enrolled in the contributory pension scheme. 

The judge further described the transfer of the deceased’s personal pension deductions into PenCom’s reclamation account as an act of administrative overreach and an unfair labour practice.

The court consequently ordered NUPEMCO and PenCom to jointly and severally pay N5, 809, 070. 20 million to the claimants within 30 days. 

The court also awarded N2 million as general damages for the wrongful withholding of the funds and directed that post-judgment interest of 10 per cent per annum be paid until the judgment debt is fully settled.

In addition, the court also awarded costs of N500, 000 against both NUPEMCO and PenCom.

Justice Subilim however, dismissed the Claimant’s claims against Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, holding that the university merely remitted the deductions through the Treasury Single Account system and neither retained nor controlled the disputed funds. 

The judge held that no wrongdoing on the part of the institution and discharged it from any liability.