Kaduna State Govt Uncovers N1.3b Pension Scam

A fraudulent pension scheme that cost N1.3 billion annually has been discovered by the Kaduna state government.
According to The Sun, the spokesperson to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Samuel Aruwan said in a statement that the discovery of the pension racket was made during a recently conducted verification exercise of pensioners in the state.

The statement read:

“The report from the verification exercise was presented to the state Executive council yesterday and it showed that 2,484 ghost pensioners were identified and removed from the pension payroll.
“Another set of 1,404 were classified as probable ghost pensioners because, while they managed to get verified, they curiously failed to pick their pension cheques.
“In July 2015, the total pension payroll from the state and local governments stood at 18,265. It cost the state government N543,771,967.43 monthly to pay the pensioners. But at the end of the biometric verification exercise, only 15,781 pensioners were verified on the payroll.
“As many as 2,484 supposed pensioners did not show up at all. Of 15,781 pensioners that were verified, 1,404 pensioners did not collect their cheques, and they are being treated as probable ghosts.
“The Kaduna state Executive Council has ordered further investigations into the precise identities of the syndicate behind the pension scam,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, claims by Nasir el-Rufai that ex-president Goodluck Jonathan spent about N64 billion on independence anniversaries between 2011 and 2014 has been denied by Abubakar Sulaiman, a minister in the Jonathan regime.

In a statement published by Premium Times on Sunday, October 4, Sulaiman described El-Rufai’s statement as “tissues of life.”

The immediate past minister of national planning during the Jonathan administration, released a detailed memo of how funds were spent on anniversary celebrations during the Jonathan-led administration.

According to the breakdown, Nigeria’s expenditure between 2012 to 2014 amounted to N332.6million.

Sulaiman said: “a breakdown of our spending for this event between 2012 and 2104 goes thus; 2012-107.6million; 2013-45million and 2014 had 180million.”

He challenged the office of the secretary to the government of the federation to publish the details so that the general public are not misinformed.