Police pension fraud: EFCC lied, I didn’t keep N2bn in my house —Perm sec

Abubakar kigo

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Atiku Abubakar Kigo, has faulted claims by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that any money was recovered from his house during a search by the operatives.

He also insisted that EFCC lied when it said N2 billion was found in his house. This is even as he challenged anybody, including the EFCC, who has evidence that such an amount of money was found in his house to lay the facts bare before the public.

Kigo spoke in Kaduna yesterday through his lawyer, Yahaya Mahmood, (SAN).

Recall that the media had quoted the EFCC as saying about N2 billion was recovered from the house of Kigo, who served in the Police Pension Office as director between 2009 and 2010 before being appointed permanent secretary.

But Mahmood, who said that they were silent on the issue because Kigo wanted “to avoid any Press war or controversy”, said that he was forced to state his own side of the story because prominent northerners like Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), is already believing the “false” story, based on the comment he (Buhari) made at the weekend, concerning the issue.

While saying that “the amount allegedly defrauded was inaccurate, (just as) the amount said to have been recovered from the permanent secretary’s house was totally false,” Kigo said “but some prominent Nigerians, including Gen. Muhammad Buhari appear to have believed the ridiculous rumour… One needs to know how many trucks will carry N2 billion from the permanent secretary’ s house to EFCC office or what kind of wardrobe, ceiling or soak-away will contain that amount.

“Newspapers have a duty and obligation to report court proceedings accurately. They can also verify certain serious facts before rushing to publish them. The danger in not doing so is that accused persons who are constitutionally presumed innocent until proven guilty are otherwise presented as guilty even before they are tried.”

In a presentation by Kigo to the Senate Committee on Establishment, a copy of which was obtained by Daily Sun, Kigo had noted that he left about N28 billion in the coffers of the Police Pension Office when he was deployed in another office.

He expressed shock over the alleged discovery, saying “it is curious that these malicious allegations and phantom recoveries always coincide with the time the task force (task Force on Police Pensions) was to end its activities.

“The only logical explanation to this coincidence is that the allegations were being made and sustained in a bid to divert attention and to promote the unbridled ambition of one person to control the entire pension industry in Nigeria for selfish reasons,” he added.

Kogi said that before he assumed office as Director in the Police Pension Office, the arrears had been calculated to N24 billion, pointing out that the calculation of the money was based on government policy that pensions be reviewed every five years or along with any federal civil service salary review.
According to him, the N24 billion was released when he became director and when the payment commenced, the Pension Commission raised an alarm over funding for the arrears resulting in the establishment of a committee to determine the actual fund required.

The committee, he said, was still working on its assignment when he was redeployed from the office, leaving the balance of N20 billion in the account.
Kigo disclosed that Police Pension Reform Task Force was initially set up with a three months time frame to design a new organogram that would be seamless in work flow; develop a robust database that is scalable and one that could be extended to other pension offices among others.

He noted that “apart from exceeding its three-month time frame, the terms of reference do not include investigating and recovery of fund. Therefore, the unilaterally adopted modus operandi of the task force is purely divisionary and has not yielded any dividends to either staff of the Police Pension Office or the retirees.

“In fact, due to the involvement of the task force team in matters that do not concern it and are outrightly outside its mandate, all accounts of Police Pension Office have been frozen to the detriment of the staff and retirees. Furthermore, the task force has not recorded any visible achievement in its assigned mandate,” he argued.

-Sun News Online