UBA, FIDELITY, ACCESS Banks Named In N24b Police Pension Scam
When Sanusi Lamido Sanusi took over the reins of office as governor of the apex bank in the country, he immediately embarked on a sanitization exercise of the banks in the country and Nigerians were jolted out of their reverie that all was well with the banking industry as in one fell swoop, the Kano State born financial guru axed the seemingly larger-than-life chief executives of mega banks, many of whom were owners of such banks.
Unethical practices of different shades by these executives were put forward as reason for their sack. Soon after this, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) waded into the picture with the arrest and prosecution of the errant financial big-wigs, with most of their assets confiscated and bank accounts frozen, sending the banking industry into a period of grave uncertainty, only assuaged by the pumping of N620billion into the industry to ensure depositors’ monies were not lost as was the practice in the past when the industry got sick.
A financial Daniel had come to judgment! Many Nigerians hailed Sanusi for his boldness in standing up against what was wrong rather than condone it, thereby casting doubts about his predecessor’s acumen and sincerity in the discharge of his duties.
However, no sooner did the dust begin to settle than other cans of worms began to open with CBN top officials being roped into the fraud and Sanusi himself accused of acting out a script.
Findings by The Premier revealed that many of these banks have returned to their old ways as the recent N24bn fraud uncovered in the police biometric exercise has proven.
By a stroke of sudden awareness, the then Head of Service of the Federation, Professor Oladapo Afolabi found it immediately urgent to have names of retired police officers within and outside the country captured and computerized with the vision of putting an end to large sums of money paid to ghost pensioners monthly.
Whether the exercise was conceived for genuine reasons or another ploy by a group of dishonest Nigerians to get their grubby fingers on the pie that is commonly called the national cake, remains a debatable matter, but findings by The Premier showed that colossal amounts of money from the Police Pension Fund have in a matter of few months disappeared into various spurious accounts.
Recently The Premier published a story on the fraud which had top officials of the anti-corruption body, the Police and even the Inspector General of police (IGP), Hafiz Ringim, as beneficiaries of the fund.
In a reckless move, the Chairman of the Task Force on the Biometric exercise, Abdulrasheed Menai, drafted several top officials of the police force and the EFCC to Europe, America and other parts of the world on a mission to document names of retired officers of the police force, spending billions of naira, in estacodes and several other allowances on an exercise that has widely been condemned and considered an executive scam.
Menai’s coming on board as chairman of the task force of the biometric exercise, adopted a style some have described as reminiscent of the mafia, by ensuring that the hands of top government officials were greased in order for his agenda to be carried out smoothly, but leaving in its trail, many questions unanswered about who was fooling who between Aso Rock and government agencies, on the so called fight against corruption.
Further investigation by The Premier revealed that large sums of money diverted from the Police Pension Fund were deposited in some banks in the country without adherence to the necessary procedure for the lodgment of such huge money.
The government approved bank for the police pension funds to be lodged in was First Bank of Nigeria Plc, with an order to get authorization from the Minister of Finance if for any tangible reason, it was found expedient to use another bank.
However, different amounts of money of the said fund running into billions of naira, findings by The Premier revealed, were domiciled in other banks apart from the approved bank without due authorization from the Minister of Finance.
In our investigation, the sum of N8bn of the fund was lodged into Fidelity Bank Plc Plot 267 Tafawa Balewa Road Central District, Abuja branch in Account number 50350224748 in the name of one Danjuma Zubauru. The Premier findings revealed that interest generated from the fixed account is shared between the Task Force team headed by Menai. Another N3bn was lodged in the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc in account number 1015556733, while N1bn, N5bn and N2bn were lodged into various accounts in Ecobank, Unity Bank and Access Bank respectively, without letters of authorization from the minister.
The reason for keeping these monies in the aforementioned banks may not be far-fetched as a simple calculation of a bank interest on these balances on a monthly basis revealed that millions of naira were generated from them which are believed to be shared by members of the task force.
The Premier has it on good note that the auditing firm of the fund, KPMG, had queried the Police Pensions office about why these monies were kept in these banks and where the interest on them were going, but interestingly, the Police Pensions Office claims no knowledge of the said funds.
Why these banks chose not to follow due process is seen by some as the Nigerian factor in which anything is possible if the price is right giving credence to the assumption that these banks have long gone back to old ways.
All efforts to get the reaction of the affected banks on the issue proved abortive as our correspondence to them for their reactions were not responded to as at the time of this report. Several phone calls to the mobile phones of their spoke persons were not responded to while some simply have their phones switched off.
The position of the Finance Minister Okonjo- Iweala could not be ascertained as at press time but as at Wednesday last week, during a press briefing on the 2012 budget breakdown, she said that pursuant of bringing down the recurrent expenditure, government has through the task force on biometric exercise, uncovered about N1billion paid to unidentified police pensioners every month, bringing the pension bill down from N1.5bn to N500 million.
While it can be argued that those working in the pension office responsible for documenting and paying pensioners should be investigated and the errant ones brought to book, how correct these figures are is another topic for contention given discrepancies discovered by The Premier of the exercise.
While some states in the federation like Bornu and Plateau were not captured in the biometric exercise, it has been discovered that next-of-kin of dead police officers have not been paid with some officers credited with amounts far below their due. For instance, one retired A.I.G Fagbemi, whose pension is N98, 000 was credited with N14, 000. It is not exactly clear if errors like this, assuming it is an error, explains in some part, the reduced monthly pension bill of police pensioners by the hundred percent it was brought down to.
Opinion from some quarters want the man, Menai, who holds an Higher National Diploma (HND) to be probed as they believe that there is simply no way the man could justify spending virtually all the money in the police pension fund to conduct a biometric exercise that necessitated jetting across the globe.
According to a retired police officer who preferred anonymity, “while the biometric exercise in itself is worthy of being carried out, the shabby manner in which it was done fools nobody. How can such stupendous expenses be made on an exercise aimed at reducing expenses? That is simply a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Eyebrows have also been raised and questions asked about how many retired police officers could afford to travel out and live in Europe, America and other parts of the world which billions of naira was spent on visiting for the biometric exercise and indeed how many of these officers were captured in the scheme.
Abdulahi Menai who moved about with more bodyguards than the president, all of whom drew payment from the pension fund, during the last Eid el Kabir celebration, was reported to have distributed cows to several top officials of government, making many, including the Permanent Secretary in one of the ministries in the federation to wonder where he got the money from.
However, Menai seems to have his tracks well covered, having generously splashed the police pension cash around those that matter. It has also been alleged that even the Minister of Finance was not left out of the largesse as N2bn was earmarked for her, perhaps in compensation for having Menai continue with the biometric exercise when she came on board as minister, amidst discontent amongst staff of the police pension office, who obviously wanted Menai gone.
More and more, the federal government has continued to display a lack-luster attitude in dealing with corruption in the country, especially among public officers, which has continued to negatively affect the confidence of the people in the government to pilot the affairs of the country.
The spate of corruption in the country has also been emphasized by some to contribute in no small measure to the state of insecurity in the country today, turning crime fighting agencies inept, having been caught deep in the web.
As Nigerians eagerly await the era when zero tolerance of corruption would be berthed in the country, and not selective justice as it appears to be in the now, Menai, like many other officers in government may as well go to sleep with both eyes closed, unless of course the Italian adage that says’ to every pig comes its martin mass” is seriously reflected upon.
source: The Premier
