ICPC arrests pensions task force official, Maina faults Senate

THE Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) has arrested an official in the office of the Head of Service of the Federation (HoS), Mr. John Agabi Emmanuel, for corruptly enriching himself with pension funds. Agabi works directly with the Pensions Reform Task Team.Head of Media of ICPC, Folu Olamiti, said yesterday in Abuja that Agabi, a processing officer, was attached to Pensions Reform Task Team (PRTT) in the office of HoS. He was alleged to have inserted “ghost” pensioners on the e-pension data-base to perpetrate the fraud.

According to Olamiti, the accused was being investigated based on a petition from the Chairman of the Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina.

Agabi faces a 31- count charge alongside Omotayo Gloria Philadjigbey.

Olamiti said the latter’s accounts in various banks were allegedly used to keep some of the pension funds through electronic transfers.

“The two accused persons were nabbed and charged to court following a culmination of investigations by the ICPC. The investigations commenced a few weeks ago as a result of a signed petition to ICPC by Mr. A.A Maina, Chairman of the Pensions Reform Task Team (PRTT).

“The ICPC, through this investigation, has recovered various sums of money from several bank accounts allegedly lodged by the accused,” he said.

When contacted, Maina told The Guardian that the accused was an ad-hoc member of staff of the team. He vowed that any official of the team found wanting would be exposed to anti- corruption agencies.

Maina has also expressed concern over the report of the Senate Committee on Establishment, saying the leadership of the Upper House had been deceived with it.

During a courtesy visit by members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Maina said the report was misleading because it didn’t take into account the achievements of the team, which had saved about N181 billion for the Federal Government of which N74 billion was used to fund the 2012 budget.

Maina also noted that his team was inaugurated in June 2010 while the report said it misappropriated N1.7 billion between 2006 and 2009 when the task team had not been inaugurated.

The NANS officials were led by Senate President of the Association, Kolade Olaoluwa. He commended the effort of the team for sanitising the pensions system and save the older ones the ordeals they have gone through until now.

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