UNBELIEVABLE! FG Funds, Pays Ghost Pensioners N1b Monthly

The Federal Government, is allegedly funding and paying over N1 billion naira to ghost pensioners on a monthly basis, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), University of Benin branch, has alleged.

BIGPENNGR.COM reports that NUP dropped the hint in a Save Our Soul (SOS) letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday.

The letter which was signed by its Chairman, Mr. Michael Ehinyameh and Secretary Mr. Samanu Momodu respectively, alleged that the former Executive Secretary of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) , Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, was aware of the development.

They said that Ikeazor, now Minister of State, Environment, had in a meeting she heard with them in 2017 lamented the anomalies but till date nothing has been done about it.

They therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately swing into action to tackle the alleged fraud and see to how to resolve their plights.

The pensioners, also claimed that the verification exercise carried out by the PTAD and Federal Ministry of Finance did not see the light of day.

The pensioners lamented that over N2 Billion was spent in the verification carried out by the PTAD and Federal Ministry of Finance in 2017 without achieving any success.

The SOS said, “Many pensioners were not paid their monthly entitlements and there was always short payments after suffering for 35 years with unblemished records.

“The palliatives to the vulnerable given by the Federal government was never given to the pensioners and may have been hijacked by unknown persons”.

They however expressed gratitude to the Federal government for establishment of the PTAD for the payment of the pensioners, even though the management and staff of body never fulfilled the dreams of its operations.

Recalls that Ikeazor, had before her ministerial appointment disclosed that PTAD dropped 24,000 ghost pensioners from the pension pay roll at the end of its verification exercise conducted in 2017.

Speaking with journalists then on the sideline of the fourth phase of Pensioner Verification in Maiduguri, the Borno State, lamented that the ghost pensioners were stemmed from fraudulent activities by families of some deceased retirees, who continued to withdraw monies from their accounts without notifying the agency over their demise.

Mrs Ikeazor noted that prelude to the verification, the agency received several notifications over the death of retirees, who died since 2012 and their pensions were still running.

She had lamented that the trend caused great loss to government saying; “The verification gives us greater accountability to know we are paying the right pensioners.

“At the end of the exercise, pensioners could verify themselves from the comfort of their homes that they are still alive so that we stop payment to the deceased without denying rightful pensioners their monies because of the unscrupulous ones.

“Let the Next of Kin (NoK) of the deceased put in their death claims and we will pay them instead of defrauding government of monthly pension,” she said.

Mrs Ikeazor explained that the verification exercise was designed to address anomalies and complaints, to ensure accurate, reliable and transparency in pension administration.