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Pension Reform Task Team Vows to Recover N195bn Missing Pension Funds

By on December 17, 2012

Taskforce Head, Maina is severally accused from different quarters

Over the years pension funds have enriched Nigerians saddled with the responsibility of heading the department. The worst part is pension funds seldom disappear without trace, however in the recent development, the alleged N195bn missing pension funds, which has generated a lot of interest, is likely to have a different end.

The Pension Reform Task Team has promised to assist the Senate to recover the alleged N195bn missing pension funds.

The Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Dr. Abdulrasheed Maina, said besides the N221bn recovered from pension fund thieves, the team has discovered a new secret account with well over N20bn.

In an interview, the Chairman told reporters in Abuja that the team had the expertise to recover such hidden funds.

He said, “We, as task team, are interested in working with the Senate to recover the N195bn because we have the expertise and technical knowledge to go after the fund and recover it.

“If it is in people’s account, we will recover it and if people stole it, we will find it out. We have a track record of doing that.”

He added, “Recently, we discovered that some amount of money is hidden in other accounts apart from the N221bn we sent to the government. I have not said this before because we are still under investigation. It is over N20bn.

“This money has been hidden in some accounts that are dormant for over three years. As soon as we get through with our investigation, we will report to the Minister of Finance to instruct the Accountant-General to move the money to Central Bank where a special account is opened for such money.”

The Chairman said he was sad following the recent development were that the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service and States and Local Governments Administration, was being misled into criticizing the task team.

He said, “Our detractors thought we have an account and we are keeping money. We only go to the bank, see account balance and write what we have observed. We have all the security agencies in our midst.

“We have this coordination but people don’t know. They give false information to the Senate Committee and they sit down on false information without verifying.

“If you are given an assignment as a committee, I feel the first person you will look for is the person in charge of the team.

“We are the depository of the database of the civil service, we ought to have been invited first so that we can go round the country with the committee investigating management of pension fund but nobody invited us.”

“They want to distract us. It is not about anything but corruption fighting back,” he said.

He said the team is working hard to expose the thieves slandering the name of the government. Adding that the thieves will do anything to bring them down too, which he said was not possible.