The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has questions to answer regarding the disbursement of N29 billion pension funds, the House of Representatives has said.
House Committee Chairman on Pension Matters, Ibrahim Bawa Kamba, at the weekend said it was wrong for the minister to handle pension disbursement without rendering account.
Kamba, particularly lamented that Okonjo-Iweala who doubles as the Coordinator of the Economy ignored several invitations extended to her in 2013 to render account.
The invitations, he said were sent to her because of petitions they received from pensioners who were unable to access their funds.
While calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene so that pensioners could get their due, the committee chairman however, said the House will not hesitate to invoke relevant laws to compel her to appear before the House to render account.
He spoke further, “It is true that the monies have not been released because when there were problems with the police pension they had about N29 billion in the pension account then but she refused to hand over to the director who is in charge of pension, she moved the funds to her office, she is the one handling it and making payments to police pensioners.
“Most at times, majority of them could not access their pension and gratuity until their deaths. We summoned her and Abduraseed Maina but she refused to release the fund to the police pension office to make payments.
“This has resulted in the death of many police pensioners leaving their defendants in penury, their children could not continue with school.
“We received several petitions from such widows and orphans in our committee and she is suppose to release the funds to police pension office to enable them be paid.
“We have written to her many times and summoned her but she refused to reply. We wrote her three letters no reply.
“When we resume from the recess we will re-invite her again to appear before us. And if she fails to come we will not hesitate to invoke relevant provisions of the laws to compel her appearance.
“And if we exhaust all avenues without making any head way we may have to commence a full-scale investigation”.
