ABUJA – Former member of the House of Representatives, Hon Ngozika Ihuoma, who is the Executive Secretary of Legislative Watch, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) said in an interview on Thursday in Abuja that, “in view of the latest developments concerning the recant of Senator Kabiru Gaya, we are going to be writing the Senator Emmanuel Paulker 8th Assembly, who is the Chairman of the Establishment and Pension committee of the Senate to initiate justice within the Senate.
“With the outbreak of the truth about where about of the N195billion as expressed by Senator Kabiru Gaya in The Sun newspaper interview, the Senate should reverse itself on the pronouncement made on Abdulrasheed Maina and order his re-instatement back to the civil service without losing seniority, and pay him all his salary arrears.
We, the Civil Society Organisations, would not sit back and continue to leave these kinds of injustices unchecked. Maina should be compensated for doing a good job and be given a National Merit award by President Buhari”
Ihuoma added that, “all the members of the PRTT, the consultants, vendors, etc should be paid what they were being owed for the work done. It is sad that in between the forced exit of PRTT and the schemed entry of PTAD, there was a monumental N35billion fraud again, in the Office of the Head of Service which the ICPC investigated but never got anywhere as far as getting convictions on the alleged culprits who were arrested by the anti-graft agencies.”
It is only fair that President Muhammadu Buhari seek answers to the following issues:
1). The petition against Senator Alloysius Etuk (Co-Chairman of the 7th Senate Pension Probe Committee who worked with Gaya), that was before the EFCC and ICPC wherein he was alleged to have swindled some of the pension suspects, which the Maina led PRTT caught. Etuk was expected to have gotten soft landing for the Pension Suspects. He could not succeed in getting them soft landing due to the evidence available to the PRTT. They are still facing trial. The Pension suspects, according to the Petition, were swindled by Sen. Etuk and some members of the committee. The anti-corruption agencies kept mum. Yet, some of those swindled have developed heart diseases and paralysis while in prison custody;
2). Where is the balance from the N282BN Recovered by the Maina led PRTT, from which the N74billion approved by the Senate to fund the 2012 budget was funded? The CBN housed the money under the seal and signature of the Accountant-General of the Federation on the instruction of the then Minister of Finance, who declared that she factored N74BN out of the 282BN recovered/saved by the Maina Led PRTT into the 2012 Budget. This she told the Listening Senators on National Television before Nigerians and the listening International Press and community. Please lets call a spade a spade and move this country forward. It is even feared that that account is empty;
3). If from two of the over 97 pension Offices, Units and Departments, in the nation about N1.6trillion was recovered, what is likely going to be the outcome from the remaining 95 pension offices? That is why the Federal Government may still need the financial intelligence and Technology driven craft, which was developed by the PRTT and used to fish out funds and also block leakages in Government expenditure, now that the truth has become public. Let sentiments be out of these please for the sake of the old and frail pensioners and Nigerians at large.
Ihuoma added that, “as at today, there is a pension Department within the PTAD Office, where on every working day about N6million is stolen daily. This practice has been on in the last four years! Not all Government Accounts are in the TSA and this is a fact.
“The PRTT has the technology and some kind of financial craft system in fishing out these kinds of accounts. They were able to identify, track, catch and seize pilfered funds and hidden government accounts. They did it before. We were privy to the fact they had worked out the modalities to extend their tentacles to the other 95 pension outfits before the hammer was used to cut them out.
“Imagine how much they could have saved from their working system if they are regrouped, energised and supported to do what they have done before. I would advise President Buhari to take a critical look at these things, please.
