Head of Service officials panic over pension fraud revelations

By Taiye Odewale

Abuja

Startling revelations recently made by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, on how the office of the Head of Service of the Federation ( OHSF) was used as cesspool of Pension Fund fraud between 2010 and 2014 have been sending jitters down the spines of officials in the office.
This is even as the chief law officer of the country made more revelations that the pension syndicate the former Chairman of Presidential Task Team on Pension Reform, Abdurasheed Maina, had problem with had serious link with the villa to the point of plotting to assassinate him.
It would be recalled that the AGF had in the course of appearing before the Senate Ad- hoc committee investigating the botched reinstatement and promotion of Maina made a written submission unearthing how the pension frauds were perpetrated based on privilege information gathered from relevant sources.
Malami had, in the written submission, disclosed that the office of Head of Service in facilitating the fraud then had 66 separate accounts for pensioners, usually presented as at 2014, 258, 000 pensioners for payment per month as against the actual figure of 141, 762 defrauding government of Billions of Naira which was the largest chunk of the N42bn fraud.
It was gathered from the office that many of the officials who were around during the alleged scam, but not in position of Directorship or Permanent Secretary now, are lobbying to be transferred to other establishments.
In line with the AGF’s assurance to the Senate Committee that despite the Maina’s orchestrated controversy by the pension fraud syndicate, government through his office would still go after the pension thieves, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC ) are said to be finalising moves to investigate serving officials in OHSF who had hand in the scam.

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