N5.778 billion Pension Scam; Panel Indicts 15 Persons In Niger

The government had earlier disclosed that the amount could not be accounted for by the immediate past administration in the state which led to the stoppage of the contributory pension scheme in the state.

Worried by this development, the state government decided to set up a committee to among other things, work out the modality for the resumption of contributory pension scheme in the state.

The panel which has the state deputy governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Ketso as its chairman has indicted 15 officials of the previous administration, among them top politicians and some civil servants.

Director General of the State Pension Board Alhaji Usman Mohammed Tinau disclosed this in Minna on Wednesday while briefing newsmen on the out come of the committee finds and recommendation.

He said that state Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello has approved that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should be invited to help recover the “missing N5.7billion pension money”.

Although he disclosed that the deputy governor who is the Chairman  of the committee will first of all have an interface with the indicted persons with a view to making them to willingly refund the amount written against them but added that those found to be stubborn “will be handed over to the EFCC

“Government will not take responsibility for this money those involved must pay back the money, it is peoples money”Ahmed declared.

He disclosed that the missing money did not pass through the Board according to the findings of the panel.

The Director General disclosed that the Board has recommenced the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme with workers employed in 1993 put under scheme while those that had been in service from 1992 downwards will remain in the old scheme pointing out that all the stakeholders including the NLC have agreed on the implementation from June this year.

He also said that the decision of government to recommence the CPS has been communicated to PENCON saying that ” PENCON responded happily they advised that we should have Service Level Agreement SLA with the PFAs, which we have done”

Ahmed said three PFAs have been selected to manage the contributions, one each for state workers and local government staff while the third is for the State Universal Basic Education Board SUBEB adding that two other PFAs have been selected to manage the 5% deduction for the state and local governments.

According to him not less than 22,000 civil servants in the state civil service are enrolled in the Contributory Pension Scheme but added that the Board has not been able to get up to date and accurate figures of those in the local governments.

” We sent letters to them (LGSC) that what we have in the local governments as staff list is not a true reflection of what it should be, we asked them to represent but up till now we have not heard from them”.

Ahmed disclosed that the state presently pays N488m monthly as pension to state retirees and N287.5m monthly for Local government retirees.

Following serious opposition to the implementation of the CPS in 2015 especially from Labour government had to suspended it to “give peace a chance