Mainagate: 116,238 fictitious pensioners used to defraud Nigeria of N42bn —AGF

THE Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has revealed how 116,238 fictitious pensioners defrauded Nigeria of over N42 billion between 2010 and 2014.

Malami, whose revelations were contained in a memo he submitted to the Senate Committee on Establishment, probing the secret reinstatement of the former chairman of the presidential task team, Abdulrasheed Maina, said many of the concerned officials were now jittery, as many of them had started seeking transfer out of the department.

The minister, in the written submission, disclosed that the office of Head of Service, which was used to facilitate the fraud, had 66 separate accounts for pensioners.

He said by 2014, the office usually presented 258,000 pensioners for payment monthly, whereas the actual figure of pensioners stood at 141,762, with fictitious pensioners totalling 116,238.

He said in the process, the syndicate defrauded the government of billions of Naira amounting to over N42  billion.

According to Malami, as a result of the lid blown on the fraud, many of the officials who were around during the alleged scam were lobbying to be transferred to other establishments, so as to be away from the radar of investigation.

He also revealed that the pension syndicate had links with the Presidential Villa, to the point of plotting to assassinate Maina.

The AGF assured the Senate committee that despite the controversy around Maina, his office would still go after the pension thieves.

He said operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were already finalising investigation of serving officials in the office of the head of service of the federation linked to the scam.

He also said the government would prosecute some of the pending cases against the pension scam suspects.  According to the AGF, some of the pending cases of the pension thieves that would be pursued in the coming year were the 21-count charge against Dr Sani Teidi, Omo Eric Uduesegbe and other companies before Justice Gabriel Kolawole; the 10- count charge against Abdul Moh’d and three other companies before Justice A.F.A Ademola and 13 other similar cases.