By VICTOR  AHIUMA-YOUNG

FOR the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, workers’ missing pension fund known as “Superannuation Fund”, it has become  one controversy after another and in fact, a case of the more you look, the less you see.

First, the unions; National union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Senior Staff of Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, SSAEAC, and National Union of Pensioners, NUP, Electricity sector, claim the money accruing from the 25 percent  deduction from workers’ monthly salaries into the Superannuation Fund, is close to the N400billion mark.

They insist that as at 2010, the fund had accumulated a total of N331billion. But the government is talking about N200billion.

Whether N400billion or N200billion, the question is; where is the money?

To get to the root of the issue, the Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, inaugurated  a Panel of Inquiry into to the N200billion that it claimed is missing.

Organised labour in the sector reacting to the probe panel, through the NUEE’s General Secretary, Comrade Joe Ajaero, while welcoming the establishment of the panel and demanding that it should sit in the public with full coverage, however objected to the inclusion of Dr. Sam Agbogun as a member and Secretary of the Panel and one Nick Agbo.

According to Ajaero, “We take exception to the appointment of Dr. Sam Agbogun as a member and Secretary of the Panel.  The reason is not farfetched.  Dr. Agbogun is currently enjoying arguably illegal Pensions which may have contributed to the Pension scam.  He stands to make biased contributions.

As a former Executive Director of PHCN that may be under investigation, it would be hypocritical to allow him to serve in this Committee.  Besides, his retirement, pension and salary while on retirement should be areas of coverage by the probe panel.

While the other members of the Committee are not known, one Nick Agbo is equally not acceptable to us for credibility and transparency to play out.  Agbo who is the Minister’s hatchet man cannot deliver the goods because of his interested stance on the subject under investigation.  Prior to now he has made comments and pronouncements that cast doubt on his impartiality.  He is biased and has disdain for Nigerian workers.”

Minister of Power’s allegation

Less than five days after it was made public that the Government was inaugurating a probe panel, the Minister through his Special Assistant (Media), Ogbuagu Anikwe,  challenged the workers to demand from their leaders the where about  of their pension funds.

In a statement issued on Sunday July 22, the Minister said the workers should find out from NUEE, SSAEAC and NUP,  how hundreds of billions of naira purportedly contributed over the decades by them towards their pension scheme disappeared.

Nnaji said the PHCN management had over the years provided N3billion annually for the payment of retirement benefits to staff members who were retiring individually, making most workers believed that the scheme was well funded from the 25% deductions purportedly made by the company over the decades.

The statement read in part, “However, with the impending privatization of 17 PHCN successor companies which necessitates mass retirements. There are practically no funds in the account to pay the severance package of the 50,000 PHCN employees.

Contrary  to the propaganda by some labour activists to the effect that there is N88billion  in the pension account as of June 30, 2004, when the old scheme ceased to operate, what is available in the account administered by the union leaders and the PHCN management is a mere N3billion.

It is, therefore, incumbent on the PHCN employees, whether retired or serving, to find out from their union leaders who are the signatories to the bank account what happened to the difference of N85billion, in the interests of transparency, probity and accountability.”

Labour dismisses allegations

Responding to Pension and You’s enquiry, one of the labour leaders said though labour would issue a formal statement of response to the Minister’s allegation, but dismissed the allegation as part of the orchestrated media campaigns by the government and its agents especially the Power Ministry to blackmail the unions and their leaders into submission.

The Labour leader who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed labour leaders met with the Minister of Power on Monday, July 23 in Abuja and told him their mind on the allegations, insisting that besides the issue of Dr. Agbogun and Agbo, they were fully in support of the probe panel which must not sit in camera.

He said, “The question is why is the Minister or his aide in a hurry to issue statement challenging workers to ask their leaders the where about of the missing pension fund?

While we insist that we have no hand in the fraud, we must also ask the Minister or his aide, if it is true that they have so much information about the missing fund, why not make such available to the panel investigating it? Unless, it is part of the plot to prepare the mind of the public to a pre-determined outcome of the panel.  Never the less, we insist that the probe panel must be allowed to do its work unhindered and not tele-guided.”