The Attorney-General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has alleged that
masterminds and beneficiaries of the looted pension fund were after him.
He said highly placed retired and
current political office holders and serving senior civil servants were
involved in pension fraud.
Malami is currently being probed
by the Senate for the recall and reinstatement of wanted pension fraud suspect,
Abdulrasheed Maina.
He said those involved in the
multi-million pension fraud were behind the ferocious media onslaught against
him and his office.
The Attorney General said this
when he spoke with Vanguard yesterday, adding that he was convinced that the
aim of the attacks was to force him to discontinue the prosecution of the
high-profile looters of pension fund to the tune of N14.3 billion.
The minister disclosed that a
highly organised pension fraud syndicate exists in Nigeria.
Malami said, “Let me state,
however, that a barrage of organised and coordinated media attacks against the
office of the Attorney-General of the Federation can best be appreciated not
from exclusive point of reinstatement of Maina but from a larger perspective of
pension fraud syndicate and their antics over time to suppress any attempts at
associated investigations.
“The fact, however, is
indisputable that there exists a pension fund fraud syndicate in Nigeria. The
syndicate includes highly placed retired and current political office holders
and retired and serving senior civil servants.
“The fraud permeates the
following institutions: NITEL pension, NIPOST pension, NEPA pension, Nigeria
Railway pension, NPA pension and NNPC pension.
“The Office of the Head of
Service of the Federation, as at 2014, usually presented 258,000 persons for
payment per month whereas the actual figure was 141,762. The differential is
116,238 ghost pensioners. There are 66 illegal accounts being used in
perpetrating pension fraud.
“The breakdown of the amount
established to have been stolen and laundered through the pension scheme and
the modus operandi through which the proceeds were stolen and laundered from
2008 to 2013 is as follows: Fictitious contracts N5,761,150,608.44; Ghost
pensioners, N829,902,260.40; Collective allowances, N1,365,821,942.91; Payments
to States Pension Boards and others, N4,192,825,310; National Union of
Pensioners, N2,290,593,322; and Association of Federal Civil Service Retirees,
N253,390,300, totalling N14,374,236,846.09.
“Pension fraud was perpetrated by
public officials to siphon humongous amounts in conjunction with, and with the
active connivance of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, Director of Pension
Accounts, State Pension Boards, and Association of Federal Public Service Retirees,
among others. Proceeds of the fraud are usually shared among the members of the
syndicate.
“Mr. Maina has been part of this
syndicate but things fell apart between him and the syndicate and he left the
shores of Nigeria upon alleged threat to his life.
“It may interest Nigerians to
know that the Federal Government of Nigeria had from 2008 to 2013 made sizeable
recoveries of stolen pension funds. The position of these recoveries needs to
be verified.
“What happened to the monies
recovered from the syndicate? What about the 270 property, comprising real
estate and motor vehicles? This is what the syndicate is labouring hard to
cover up using media hype against anyone that has shown interest in lifting the
veil.
“In case you are interested in
having the breakdown of the recoveries, please find them listed here below:
N2,800,000,000, $3,000,000, 3,500 euro, N16,185,131,847.09k through the OHCSF
Pension Account No: 0023682604 domiciled with Union Bank Plc and over 270
property and motor vehicles.
‘’There are 12 criminal charges
bordering on variants of financial crimes currently pending at different
courts, with an aggregate value of N14.3 billion.
“The on-going cases are being
continuously compromised by the powerful syndicate. Senior lawyers were being
withdrawn from the prosecution of these cases and very junior lawyers were
assigned to handle them.
“The intention was always to slow
down the progress of the cases and turn back the hands of the clock both in
terms of speed and sustenance of the coordinated memory. Principal actors in
the syndicate were left off the hook and never charged while the low profile
actors are left to their fate standing trial.”
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