About N300million is looted daily from the Police Pension funds, the
Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Force, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, has
said .The task force has already remitted N36billion of the recovered funds to the Federation Account.
Maina while on a courtesy visit to the Chairman of the Independent
Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo
Nta, said 120 properties acquired with money stolen from the funds have
also been seized.
The commission’s Head of Media, Mr. Folu Olamiti, in a statement,
said: “The Reform Task Team said it had covered some grounds in the
fight against Pension Funds thieves. It disclosed that it was able to
uncover a fraud to the tune of N36 billion within the Police Pension
Funds Office, alone.
“It said it had remitted the whole sum to the purse of the
federation, while seizing about 120 properties allegedly acquired with
stolen pension funds by the cabals.Maina said investigations by members of his team had revealed that
the cabals in the Police Pension Office were in the habit of stealing up
to N300 million on a daily basis through fictitious cheques prepared in
the names of fake pensioners.
“He said investigations into the Police Pension Office were still
ongoing, disclosing that his team had covered 40 percent of
investigations into the pension funds scam.“A member of the Pension Task Team, who is also a former member of
the House of Representatives, Ngozika Ihuoma, told ICPC about similar
fraud with Local Government Pension Funds, disclosing that from 1976
till date, a total of N3.3 trillion had been deducted from the funds
without proper accountability.”
The breakthrough recorded by the Pension Task Team on recovery of
stolen pension funds is said to have started attracting the attention of
the Presidency following a formal invitation extended to the Chairman
by the Economic Management Team for special briefing.
Mr.Olamiti said: “According to Maina, President Jonathan had
personally invited the Pension Task Team to brief the Economic
Management Team on its achievements so far, most especially the
e-pension model the Team had developed to reduce stealing of pension
funds across the country.
“Maina thanked President Goodluck Jonathan and the ICPC for the
support both have been throwing behind the Task Team, just as he
appealed for further support from the government of Nigeria on how to
rid the pension departments in Nigeria of fraudulent cabals.
“He disclosed that he has continued to receive death threats from
those he suspected as Pension funds cabals, recalling the recent mail
sent to him, threatening to bomb the office of the Pension Reform Task
Team.”
The ICPC chairman, Nta, said the consistent pilfering of pension
funds by officials of government could cause a major national disaster.According to the statement, Nta said “since pensioners were in every
home in the country, the idea of denying them their rights and
entitlements through stealing of their pension could put pressure on the
national economy.
“He observed that the stealing of pension funds easily attracted irreversible curses on perpetrators.“He assured the Pension Task Team of preparedness by ICPC to support
the fight against stealing of pension funds in Nigeria, promising to
partner with the National Television Authority (NTA) and the Africa
Independent Television (AIT) in a Special Forum on Pension Funds.”
Culled from The Nation News Newspaper
