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The Head of the
Civil Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, said the biometric
enrolment of pensioners embarked upon by his office has started to
yield some of the desired results.

Mr. Oronsaye made
this known when four suspected fake pensioners, three men and a woman,
arrested at the Lagos Centre in the course of the exercise were paraded
by the Police in Abuja.

Represented at the
event by the Director of Pension, Karamot Lawal, he explained that two
of the suspects confessed to have been recruited by a syndicate
involved in the registration of fake pensioners.

On the run

The two men, one a
brick layer and the other a tailor, told pressmen that another lady who
is currently on the run, was the contractor that approached them in the
guise of securing federal government employment for them.

According to Mr.
Oronsaye, the third suspect and the only female amongst them allegedly
confessed that she had been collecting her late father’s pension since
he died in 2008 and that she recruited the fourth suspect to attempt
enrolment at the biometric exercise in the place of her dead father.

The Head of Service
explained further that these two categories of fake pensioners have
existed on the payroll and the biometric enrolment is a good way of
flushing them out.

He said that these
and other fake pensioners, arrested during the exercise all over the
federation would be charged, and would face the law in court.

The federal
government launched the biometric registration of pensioners on June 21
this year. The exercise was designed to acquire full knowledge of all
the people who are eligible to receive pensions from the federal
government.

The exercise was,
however, marred with controversy in most states of the federation. Even
after the federal government extended the exercise by two extra weeks,
many pensioners are still not registered, a situation which has been
roundly condemned by various executives of the Nigeria Union of
Pensioners.