The Head Of Service’s Office Is Deeply Involved in the Pension Fraud –Investigative Journalist
An investigative journalist, Olajide Fashikun, has alleged that the recurring pension fraud in Nigeria is deeply structured in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoSF).
The journalist, has been investigating pension fraud issues in Nigeria for the past three years, called for the prosecution of the 13 persons that were arrested in October for an alleged pension fraud by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).
Mr, Fashikun has written a report on the pension fraud. But he stressed that “the best of reports sometimes do not move those that would take the decision.”
“He pointed out that the fraudulent activities in the HoSF’s office had led to non-payment of pensioners. Let the genuine Nigerian pensioners get their pension. The more we continue to politicise the issue, the longer it takes for the pensioners to get their pensions,” the publisher of the Gong News, an online news website stressed on Monday.
He decried the way issues of corruption were handled in Nigeria, saying that the ICPC was at the moment under tremendous pressure not to prosecute the 13 persons arrested.
“The current HoSF, Bukar Goni Aji, was a Permanent Secretary of the Police pension Office when the first fraud that led to the sacking of Abdulrasheed Maina and the pension Reform Task Team was committed,” Mr. Fashikun said supporting his claims that pension fraud issues were rooted in the HoSF’s office.
He questioned why he had not been tried even when 43 of the persons he approved minutes for as a Permanent Secretary were being tried.
“Why is he not being tried? Rather he got promoted to become the HoSF,” he added.