Former Chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, Mrs
\nNgozi Olejeme went craze with public funds after conniving with top brass
\nof the agency to steal over N12billion, part of which she invested in her
\nfailed Governorship bid, pointblanknews.com can reveal.<\/p>\n
As soon as Mrs. Olojeme and others at the top hierarchy of NSITF pulled
\nout the huge sums from the NSITF, she embarked on a spending spree.<\/p>\n
She declared her interest to run for governorship before the Delta State
\nChapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with whopping sum of N20million
\ncash, gave N50 million to the State PDP chairman and donated N3million
\ncash to each of the 25 Local Governments in the State, which amounts to a
\nmouth-watering N75million.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Olojeme allegedly spent over N2billion, the biggest sum ever spent by
\nany aspirant for a primary election in Delta State and got just 11 votes
\nat the PDP primaries.<\/p>\n
Now, NSITF is currently embroiled in a N12billion scandal. The workers\u2019
\nunion has an axe to grind with the management and board over the alleged
\nembezzlement of the N12billion Employees Compensation Scheme (ECS) between
\n2011 and 2014.<\/p>\n
They want President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the anti-graft agency,
\nEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the
\nmisappropriation of the funds.<\/p>\n
The lid was blown when some members of the in-house union picketed the
\nNSITF headquarters in Abuja to demand for backlog of entitlements.<\/p>\n
They said the petition they wrote in 2015 to former President Goodluck
\nJonathan did not see the light of the day because of the cozy relationship
\nbetween him and Dr. Ngozi Olejeme, the NSITF\u2019s head.<\/p>\n
Sources said the management has a case to answer for the missing fund,
\naccusing Dr. Ngozi Olejeme of being complicit as she deployed part of
\nthe fund to finance her governorship aspiration in Delta State and the
\ncampaign of former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.<\/p>\n
The petition seen by pointblanknews.com dated April 24th 2015, signed by
\nstaff of the NSITF, titled: \u2018Allegations of Fraud, Mismanagement and Poor
\nStaff Welfare against NSITF Management\u2019, gave graphic details of the
\nsleaze in the organization.<\/p>\n
The 25-paragraph petition reads in part, \u201cthe group regretted that few
\nyears after the enactment of the Employees Compensation Act otherwise
\nknown as ECA, 2010, which repealed the Workmen Compensation Act, that
\nsaddles the NSITF management board with administering the scheme in such a
\nway that an average injured employee with injury in the course of work or
\neven at work will enjoy rehabilitation or compensation as the case may be,
\nthe scheme is yet to meet the yearnings of the employees because of
\nserious \u201cNigeria factor”.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediately the Act was signed and ready for implementation, the first
\nmove by the board was to engage a consultant for recruitment. The
\nconsultant charged hapless prospective employees N1, 000 each. It was
\nquite strange to see a social security organisation like the NSITF
\ndisplaying such crude mercantilist tendency. Till date the millions of
\nnaira collected from the unfortunate jobless Nigerians in the name of
\nproviding jobs for them remain guesswork.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat even makes the whole thing more grating to the ear is the alleged
\nagreement by the NLC president, a member of the board of directors, to the
\njob scam.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Federal Ministry of Labour that should provide the necessary
\nsupervision by ensuring that the activities of the agency pass the litmus
\ntest of public service rules abdicated its role for alleged fear of losing
\nface with the presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite a number of former retired or retrenched staff of NSITF receiving
\nmonthly pension were given fresh appointment and fresh confirmation of
\ntheir appointments. As an in-house union we complained that the
\npost-qualification experience for the advertised vacant positions in
\nnational dailies in April 2011 was at variance with scheme of service of
\nNSITF and Public Service generally as there was no explicit requirement
\nfor cognate experience. But after the 2011 recruitment exercise,
\nsubsequent recruitments were allegedly carried out without interview as
\nletters were just being issued either in churches, mosques and various
\ncultural organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom 2011 till date, recruitments are done without planning. Not even the
\ntop executive management made up of the MD\/CE and three executive
\ndirectors know the number of staff currently in the service of NSITF. The
\nboard has completely appropriated the functions of management.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Abuja alone, there are four branch offices of NSITF in addition to the
\nhead office. The branches are in FCT, Mararaba, Kagini, and Gwagwalada
\nwith an average of 200 staff. Some of the staff allegedly sits on plastic
\nchairs procured by them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NSITF board is allegedly the board of Trustfund Pensions Plc- a
\npension fund administration established by NSITF with other social
\npartners. In the wisdom of the founding fathers the board of Trustfund
\nPensions Plc was to be chaired by the MD of NSITF, to be supervised by the
\nboard of NSITF as appointed by government. But today it is no longer the
\ncase. With the alleged connivance of PenCom, the NSITF board is also the
\nboard of Trustfund Pensions and of course every Nigerian knows that over
\nN50billion worth of pension assets is in the custody of Trustfund\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there any need for such collecting agents? The monthly wage bill of
\nNSITF is allegedly close to N1billion. How does the agency meet the cost
\nof industrial hazards? Yes, the Jonathan administration has signed ECA,
\n2010, but are the right people managing it? Let an independent auditor
\nlook into the books of NSITF, and we shall see how much that place
\nstinks!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, Mrs Ngozi Olejeme went craze with public funds after conniving with top brass of the agency to steal over N12billion,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n