. How 2.6 Billion Developed Wings!
Some pensioners in Oyo State may have to endure hardship for a little longer as a massive fraud has been uncovered at the Local Government Service Pension Board of Oyo State. According to Chief Labisi Ayankojo, the Chairman of the Board, between September 2010 and March 2011, not less than N 2.608 billion meant for pensioners ended up in the wrong pockets.
The Chairman disclosed that most of the money was collected through intermediaries without proper documentation. The Chairman of the Board alleged that about 12 people had to be invited over the matter. Ayankojo also alleged that the money was collected through the office of the Secretary of the Board, with the former Secretary of the Board, H.A Muili being at the centre of the alleged scam. Incidentally, the former Secretary is presently the Director of Personnel Management in one of the Local Government Councils in Oyo Town.
Street Journal’s efforts to reach him proved futile as he was said to be on vacation, though his vacation officially ended on Monday.
Confirming Street Journal’s postulation that the amount involved might be more than was being quoted, the Chairman disclosed that investigations are still on while auditors are currently working on the accounts of the Board from 2011 till date.
According to some documents made available to Street Journal, the former Secretary of the Pension Board and one Alhaja M.L Giwa allegedly made some withdrawals from the Local Government Staff Account; on September 27, 2010, N 218, 306, 960.10 was drawn from the account, on the 30th November, there were two withdrawals, N 243,499,552.51 and N 218, 624,434.08.
From the Teachers’ Account, two withdrawals were allegedly made on September 27, 2010. The first was N 267, 292, 251.95 while the second withdrawal was the sum of N 324, 149, 701.40. It was also noted that three withdrawals were made from the same account on November 25, 2010. The first withdrawal totalled N 210, 449,877 while the second, N 191, 763, 443.20 was done from a Zenith Bank account while the third withdrawal was N 236, 621, 617.68.
The details also contained some individual withdrawals. For instance, it was alleged that on September 2, 2010, Muili drew N 6 million from Finbank and withdrew another N 7 million from UBA on October 8. Ten days later, he allegedly withdrew another N 5 million thus bringing his personal withdrawals between September and October 2010 to N 18 million.
Between September 2, 2010 and October 12, 2010, Alhaja M. I Giwa allegedly withdrew N 22.2 million while B.N Oguntayo withdrew N 26.7 million between 18th September and January 2011.
Some cases of multiple withdrawals were also alleged to have taken place. For instance, on November 30, 2011, J A Adesina made five different withdrawals of N 8.5 million, N 7.5 million, N 2.5 million, N 6 million, N 6 million and N 9 million thus making a total of N 39.5 million in one day.
While insinuations are rife that there might be collaborators among the pensioners, it was also found out that the existence of ghost pensioners cannot be ruled out. The Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Alhaji Lateef Adegoke however expressed surprise that people could embezzle up to that level. He said “we as pensioners are not involved, we are trying our best to ensure that ghost pensioners are fished out and that is why we verify at all times. The perpetrators should be prosecuted”, he said.
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