Senate Majority Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba(SAN), has revealed how his father, a retired judge, was made to sign for N7million as against the actual N5million received.
This came as the Senate ordered the Chairman, Pension Task Team, Mr. Rasheed Maina and other members, guilty of defrauding pensioners, to refund N15,386,383,122.96 billion, being the differentials between the claims of payment of pension by the task team and the actual expenditures.
They also called for the restructuring of the police pension office like that of the military pension board to ensure efficiency and effectiveness and to be headed by a serving police officer not below the rank of a police commissioner.
Speaking on the plight of the nation’s retirees, Ndoma-Egba said, “I have always suspected that things are bad in this country. I have always been an optimist, but today I cannot say that any one of us here can say that he knows that things are this bad. I have friends who are pensioners.
He spoke during the adoption of the report of the Senate’s joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service, and States and Local Governments that investigated the fund’s mismanagement. The committee was chaired by Senator Alloysius Etuk.
Ndoma-Egba said, “My father retired from the Court of Appeal over 20years ago and my younger brother goes to sign for his pensions. He was standing in front of the records and saw over N7 million written against my father’s name, he was forced to sign for N5 million. That is the pension of a retired Justice of the Court of Appeal, whose son by God’s grace is today the Senate Leader of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
” Nobody was afraid to take N2 million from his pension, so you can imagine what lesser mortals have gone through in the hands of the people who are appointed to save this situation but they ended up being principalities themselves. That is blood money and blood money is a cursed money, not only on them but on their children’s children, it is a curse on them no matter what they think.
“From this report, it is evident that one, we have lost our values as a country, two, our systems and processes have failed, three, our humanity has deserted us, four, we have lost our souls as a nation. If you have no soul, I don’t know which God you will face for judgment.”
On the committee’s recommendations, the lawmakers also directed that officers who collected funds for the biometric data capture and pension verification in Diaspora but did not undertake the trip should refund the sum.
They added that those who produced evidence of travel should be compelled to produce the report of the exercise.
– Blueprint