By PROVIDENCE OBUH
NON-ACADEMIC Staff Union of Educational and Related Associations, NASU, has called on the Labour movement to be  the vanguard in the fight against looted pension funds.

General Secretary of NASU, Comrade Peters Adeyemi, who spoke in Lagos, said  “If it is possible, I will say that the labour people should struggle on behalf of the pensioners to ensure that sanity is restored into the system.”

Comrade Adeyemi who spoke to Pension and You atthe Research and Projects Trade Group Council Meeting, hosted by ICAN chapter, said “We should tell the government what to do if they are not ready, we should fight them because these pensioners’ cannot fight for themselves, because we have potential pensioners, if we don’t do something now, they will steal our own money and we will also die on the cue, God forbid.

If this money had been properly invested there will be no liquidity for people to steal. But if you keep this money lying low, thieves will go there and move them, because they are in several billions, this money should be invested, invested so that people can not have access to them.”

“Government is keeping quite because those people who are stealing this money are government people, why can’t we do some of those things that happened in China, if you are found to have stolen public fund, particularly fund meant for pensioners, you are executed.

In developed economy, pension funds are not supposed to be there for people to see. Pension funds are supposed to be invested, this money are supposed to be invested on mass housing, productive venture that will be of great benefit and of result.”

Talking to the pensioners’ he said, “I don’t want any pensioner to think that they have stolen the money, if they have stolen the money, it is the responsibility of the government to pay.   “Pensioners must collect what is due to them, either the money has been stolen or not it is the responsibility of the government to provide money for them.”

Also speaking, the Lagos State Council Chairman of NASU, Comrade Oye Adeniran said, “Government effort in tackling corruption is not encouraging, in spite of the fact that poverty is domicile with majority of the populace, lack of jobs, heavy taxes and lack of good remunerations are factors militating on it.

Adeniran added that the absence of political wills on the part of those in authorities to prosecute cases to their logical conclusion are also contributory factors to corruption.

Advising its members to embrace peace, he said, “It is commonly applauded that this monster call corruption is a citizen of this country and it rots from top to bottom, leaving no angle untouched, thereby people flourish in it.”

***As Senate gets probe report today

THE Senate will today receive the report of  Aloysius Akpan Etok led Joint Senate Committee on Establishment, Public Service, States and Local Government Administration, that probe the management of the pension’s fund in the country

Committee Co-Chairman, Senator Kabiru Gaya, who announced this development, explained why the committee’s report was not presented yesterday as earlier planned.

It will be recalled that the Senate Joint Committee for some times now have been probing the management of pension funds where it held public hearings where major stakeholders and players revealed how billions of the funds were looted.

Similarly, a former director of Pension in the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr Sani Shaibu Teidi, yesterday the total amount of pension funds looted was over N60 billion.

Dr Teidi who spoke in Abuja, however denied a newspaper report (not Vanguard) that he claimed to have given N3 billion bribe to the Senator Etok led panel.

Describing the report as malicious, he said, “the story was malicious and it was calculated attempt to tarnish my image. I never said I bribed the committee. I presented documents to the senate and left. For Leadership to say that I told them that I bribed the committee, it was falsehood.

I have asked my lawyers to write to them asking for a retraction, apology and compensation of N2.5bilion. I am not the only person accused of pension fraud, but why is it that it is always my name that is being mentioned. I built my house when I was accountant-general between 2002 and 2003, but they went and put the pictures of my house in newspapers. Does it mean I cannot own a house in my village? They did not take time to investigate this.

“Why committing and convicting in the eyes of the public. They started by saying that I looted N12 billion, later N7 billion, and today N4.5 billion. And what was involved in the fraud, like I told the Senate committee, was over N60bn. the documents I tendered at the senate showed a fraud of over N40 billion. I won’t comment further on this because the matter is still being investigated by the senate committee.

From my own records alone, what went out of the pension funds was more than N41 billion, and there are other records to show that altogether, the fraud was over N60bilion and I the press freedom, but that freedom should not be used to infringe on people’s fundamental rights. I want the leadership to produce any evidence that I granted them an interview.

If they fail to tender an apology, we have no option to take them to court. I forwarded the list of names used to loot pension funds to the Office of the National Security Adviser to the president and a committee was set up. The media, especially the leadership, did not report this. Today, even the pulse I used to train my children is being affected. My children are at home today. I have never attempted to bribe anybody, not to talk of the Senate”.