Nigeria Content Online

Monumental fraud
that could stop the hearts of the faint-hearted has been exposed at the
National Pensions Office. Details of the fraud, which are still
unfolding, are so scandalous that it beggars belief. Initial reports
show that two senior officials of the office have, over the years,
looted more than N12 billion from the government and poor pensioners.
According to the investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, one Suleiman Shaibu, a director, and Phiana Chidi, a deputy
director, have between them cleaned off the vast sum of money from the
national treasury. The two officials who are said to be aided by a
close syndicate made up of ministry officials and bank managers, have
been able to perfect a scheme which before now had been foolproof.

The two connived
with one Abdulai Omeza, who operated nine bank accounts under
fictitious names into which proceeds were paid and later withdrawn and
transferred to Mr. Shaibu and Mrs. Chidi. In doing this, many contracts
were awarded and money paid to fictitious contractors through the
accounts. Last week, the anti-graft agency was able to trace these
accounts and money to the trio who are now under arrest.

What led to this
exposure was that between August and January last year, the office of
the head of service of the federation had invited the anti-graft agency
to help sort out the mess at the Pensions office. The agency found out
that out of over 141,000 names on the list, only 90,000 were genuine.
This means the 51,000 other names on the list were fake but were all
receiving money from the federal government, thus shooting the bill to
well over N3 billion. What a colossal waste! In the bank account of
Mrs. Chidi alone, a whopping N60 million was found, while Mr. Omeza had
N100 million in his. Accomplices such as Mamman Ali Abdallah, Aliyu
Bello and Luke Eloanyi, had various huge sums of money in their
accounts. Other alleged members of this well-coordinated syndicate are
Danjuma Bako-Wasa, Luke Eloanyi, M. A. Abdalla, Aliyu Bello and Grace
Francis. Mr. Bako-Wasa was said to have operated different accounts
with the name Haruna Megida. In one year, he allegedly paid about N21
million into one bank account, while N8 million was discovered in
another account also traced to him. The commission also traced N12
million to Mrs. Francis’ account, while Mr. Eloanyi allegedly had N13
million in his account.

This stupendous
fraud at the Pensions office is perhaps not surprising to many. The
office has become a terrible manhole through which billions of naira
are lost to unscrupulous officials who fleece poor old pensioners of
their hard-earned money, and government of its resources. It is
regrettable that people who are responsible for making light the burden
of this segment of the society are the same ones who add more to their
troubles.

It is unfortunate
that our society has allowed itself to sink so low in morals. It is not
too hard to say that we, as a nation, have lost our souls. All the men
and women involved in this monumental fleecing of the nation’s
resources are probably members of one religious organisation or the
other. They come from families too. These two crucial arms of the
society appear to have lost their moral suasion.

The two arrowheads in this heist — Mr. Shaibu and Mrs. Chidi — must
be made to pay dearly for their sins. It is important to make sure that
this is done, to serve as a clear deterrent to others. This twosome has
demonstrated glaringly the long held belief that civil servants are the
ones who aid and abet politicians to steal our country’s money.