SOME officials of government, both at the state and federal levels have perfected the act of corruption as the very daring among them now stash billions of looted government funds in their private homes.

The chairman, Pension Reform Task Team, Mr Abdulrasheed Maina stunned officials of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Thursday with the revelation of how his team caught a top civil servant in the pension unit at the office of the Head of Service with cash of N2 billion stashed in his private residence.

Maina also recounted how another civil servant was caught with a pile of dollars in his house, stressing that some officials of government had over the years been involved in mindless looting of the pension arrears of helpless retirees, many of whom had died while many others were stricken with ailments arising from denial of their pensions by government officials.

The Head of Pension Reform Task Team was at the ICPC national headquarters to inform the officials of the progress by the team in recovering looted pension funds, disclosing that so far, the team had recovered the total sum of N151 billion meant to have been looted by officials saddled with the task of managing the pension funds.

He said the offenders had been arrested and were already undergoing the process of prosecution, stressing that those arrested so far had had the properties they bought with looted funds, including private buildings, offices, hotels, shopping malls, confiscated by the Federal Government.

According to him, the team, in conjunction with the EFCC, had traced and recovered a total of N35 billion and another N15 billion worth of properties from the “very few corrupt government officials in the office of the Head of Service, Pension Department.

Maina said the breakthrough recorded so far by members of his team was facilitated by the EFCC and the ICPC through the officials they seconded to the reform team.

He said the team was able to record progress in tracking the fraud in pension management in Nigeria with the use of Electronic Management Pension Scheme, which, he said, made the creation of data on pension profile in the country possible, adding that the data base contains bio-data, biometrics on payment of pension, which have ultimately reduced the incidence of ghost pensioners in the country.

He said when the Pension Reform Task Team conducted a nationwide biometric verification of pensioners, it detected no fewer than 71,133 fake pensioners from the total of 141,790 on the payroll of the government.

He said prior to the verification exercise, the Federal Government was erroneously paying the sum of N5 billion monthly as pension, noting that the sum had now been reduced to N825 million after verification.

He said the team also discovered that for a long time, genuine pensioners totalling 44,320 were never paid, most of them having retired between 1968 and 1975, disclosing further that after a thorough review of the process of payment, the pensioners have now started receiving payments.

He also notified the ICPC top officials that the task team had also succeeded in reducing the monthly pension of the Nigeria Police from N1.5 billion to N500 million, an indication that corruption had also taken hold of the pension department of the police force.

Maina, however, appealed to the ICPC to assist his team in the task of busting the cabal in the management of Nigeria’s pension fund, while ensuring that those already arrested as looters of the funds should face prosecution meant to prevent them from returning to their duty posts to continue looting.

The acting chairman of ICPC, Ekpo Nta, expressed delight at the activities of the Reform Team, which, according to him, had started touching lives across the federation, stating that ICPC has equally embarked on system review of public department, just as he enjoined Nigerians to emulate the transparent manner by which the team had been going about its assignments.

He vowed to ensure that anyone found culpable of mismanaging the pension arrears would not go free, just as he said ICPC would like to bring the outcome of the intervention by the Reform Task Team to the public domain.

Comments (7)

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written by Tobi Okus, February 03, 2012

We are happy when probes like this happen!! Pls probe all those looters, how on earth can they deprive aged pensioners of their benefits? Have they forgotten that one day they will be pensioners as well? God help Nigeria!!

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written by Ade Johnbull, February 03, 2012

How are people going to arrest the police who are also involved in the pension scam

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Go the Distance
written by Julius N'Sama, February 03, 2012

Name names, punish, give us our money. Stop jabbering and act for us, we the people. Anything else is useless grammar.

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Publish the names and faces of the looters
written by Roy, February 03, 2012

Kudos to EFCC and the ICPC for a job well done.
But kindly Publish the names and faces of the looters for we Nigerians to know those who have been milking this country dry as well as sending some of this retirees to early grave.

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written by Aregbesola , February 03, 2012

Please stop all this allegations that has no merits at the end they will find them not guilty only in Nigeria. God help us.

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Mr.
written by emmanuelbfakorode, February 04, 2012

This is a very good outcome of an investigation.This is one aspect, another aspect is for the Judiciary to give a judgement that will serve as a deterrent to others.

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written by Aliyu Yero, February 06, 2012

Pay our aged parents their arrears with the recovered money. A good job Maina!

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