My account was used to siphon N30b pension fund - Account officer
A staff of the Pension Accounts Office, Christian Madueke, on Tuesday told the Senate that over N30 billion pension fund was siphoned through his account with First Bank of Nigeria Plc.
Madueke said the fraud was perpetrated over a period of four years.
He also said it was not only his account that was used for the fraud.
That of another staff of the pension office, Margaret Panja Oyobi, and about 10 others were also used although the amount that passed through the accounts could not be confirmed.
Giving evidence before the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service and States and Local Governments, Madueke said the fraud was perpetrated between 2007 and 2011.
He said it was one John Yusuf who supervised the operations of the accounts, adding that he was only given money for transportation whenever he had to go to the bank.
Also at Tuesday's hearing, the Senate committee asked the police to probe the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the pension fraud.
This followed accusations levelled against the EFCC of involvement in the fraud by two key staff of the Pension Accounts Office, Toyin Ishola and Dr Suhaibu Teddy.
Teddy accused the EFCC of involvement in the illegal withdrawal and transfer of pension fund, requesting that the committee should remove the commission from the investigation since it also should be investigated.
A former Chairperson of the EFCC, Farida Waziri, who also appeared before the committee, said: “The fraud that was discovered was monumental and I was shocked because I never would have believed that civil servants could do this to each other because one day, they are going to be also pensioners and these are their brothers and kins and the money meant for them, they carted them away.
“I had occasion to go for verification sometimes in Lagos and I wept there because people came, some carried them in blankets and they were there for months, some were dying and some of them have no bank accounts and people capitalise on that and in the end, what was given was pittance.
“There was this pretty lady and the money that was found in her accounts were mind-boggling; in the name of her mother and in her name.
"It was just monumental.
"I called her and I looked at her and said: you are a mother, how could you be party to this?
“Her answer was that she was used, the men did this and I told her that was not an excuse.
“There was a big list of names and the suspect claimed these are all dead people that the money were being paid to and then this was of no use to me.
"I can compile names within one hour.
"No address, no certificate of birth, no death certificate.
"And I said, ‘can you go back to the office and get me their local government areas?’
“I had scheduled 10 detectives to go and see the graves of these people and then we will assume that if the first 10 are all dead, then the whole lots of millions are real and we will find out who and who are collecting money.
“At this stage, he never came back and the story was that he was the one who unraveled the frauds.
“The recoveries were monumental.
"Everyday we recovered monies.
"In some of the account, they put money there and forgot and the fraud went on for long time in the pension office.
“These banks are not helping this country.
"They want funds at all cost, whether they are from dead bodies, they do not care as long as the monies is their accounts.
"Without that bank collusion, they couldn’t have stolen these billions.
"It is in the banks and they know it.
“Recently, before I retired, there was a matter.
"A bank was sold to another bank and they were trying to steal money and one of our operatives, they now transferred N350 million into his account and N200 million into the Abuja branch.
"When we discovered these monies, within 30 minutes, it was withdrawn.
“Even on loans, I have a case of N40 billion.
"In this country, with high poverty level, one man borrowed N40 billion that he was going to sell diesel and come back and pay.
“He went and sold the diesel and later bought choice properties in Dubai without collateral.
"A local government can do a lot with that money.”
He also said it was not only his account that was used for the fraud.
That of another staff of the pension office, Margaret Panja Oyobi, and about 10 others were also used although the amount that passed through the accounts could not be confirmed.
Giving evidence before the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service and States and Local Governments, Madueke said the fraud was perpetrated between 2007 and 2011.
He said it was one John Yusuf who supervised the operations of the accounts, adding that he was only given money for transportation whenever he had to go to the bank.
Also at Tuesday's hearing, the Senate committee asked the police to probe the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the pension fraud.
This followed accusations levelled against the EFCC of involvement in the fraud by two key staff of the Pension Accounts Office, Toyin Ishola and Dr Suhaibu Teddy.
Teddy accused the EFCC of involvement in the illegal withdrawal and transfer of pension fund, requesting that the committee should remove the commission from the investigation since it also should be investigated.
A former Chairperson of the EFCC, Farida Waziri, who also appeared before the committee, said: “The fraud that was discovered was monumental and I was shocked because I never would have believed that civil servants could do this to each other because one day, they are going to be also pensioners and these are their brothers and kins and the money meant for them, they carted them away.
“I had occasion to go for verification sometimes in Lagos and I wept there because people came, some carried them in blankets and they were there for months, some were dying and some of them have no bank accounts and people capitalise on that and in the end, what was given was pittance.
“There was this pretty lady and the money that was found in her accounts were mind-boggling; in the name of her mother and in her name.
"It was just monumental.
"I called her and I looked at her and said: you are a mother, how could you be party to this?
“Her answer was that she was used, the men did this and I told her that was not an excuse.
“There was a big list of names and the suspect claimed these are all dead people that the money were being paid to and then this was of no use to me.
"I can compile names within one hour.
"No address, no certificate of birth, no death certificate.
"And I said, ‘can you go back to the office and get me their local government areas?’
“I had scheduled 10 detectives to go and see the graves of these people and then we will assume that if the first 10 are all dead, then the whole lots of millions are real and we will find out who and who are collecting money.
“At this stage, he never came back and the story was that he was the one who unraveled the frauds.
“The recoveries were monumental.
"Everyday we recovered monies.
"In some of the account, they put money there and forgot and the fraud went on for long time in the pension office.
“These banks are not helping this country.
"They want funds at all cost, whether they are from dead bodies, they do not care as long as the monies is their accounts.
"Without that bank collusion, they couldn’t have stolen these billions.
"It is in the banks and they know it.
“Recently, before I retired, there was a matter.
"A bank was sold to another bank and they were trying to steal money and one of our operatives, they now transferred N350 million into his account and N200 million into the Abuja branch.
"When we discovered these monies, within 30 minutes, it was withdrawn.
“Even on loans, I have a case of N40 billion.
"In this country, with high poverty level, one man borrowed N40 billion that he was going to sell diesel and come back and pay.
“He went and sold the diesel and later bought choice properties in Dubai without collateral.
"A local government can do a lot with that money.”
No comments:
Post a Comment