SENATE ORDERS THE POLICE TO INVESTIGATE FARIDA WAZIRI AND LAMORDE OVER LOOTING THE PENSION SCHEME

The Senate Joint Committee on Investigations into Pension Administration has asked the Police to probe the allegation that the Pension Reform Task Team paid N5.8m into the account of the former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mrs. , and her successor, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde.

The committee arrived at this decision at its sitting on Tuesday, when the Chairman, Senator Aloysius Etok, said it had become imperative to get to the roots of the allegation that Waziri and Lamorde, who both denied the allegation, collected the N5.8m to travel abroad for biometric verification.

Waziri and Lamorde, had appeared before the committee to deny that about N5.8m was paid into their accounts by the PRTT for a trip abroad to carry out biometric data capture on pensioners.

But the Assistant Chief Account, Mr. Toyin Ishola, in his presentation, insisted that the N5.8m withdrawn by Madubuike and handed over to Yusuf was meant for Lamorde and Waziri.

“I urge the committee to investigate further and you will find out that the money was actually paid to them,” he insisted.

Although Chairman of the committee, Senator Aloysius Etok, had asked the EFCC to investigate the matter, Ishola protested, saying the EFCC was not in a position to investigate a case in which it was indicted.

Etok, however, reversed himself and directed that the Police should take over the investigation and verification of the details of payments to Waziri and Lamorde.

The committee also heard how members of the PRTT used bank accounts of employees of the Police Pensions Office to siphon about N5.9bn of the funds belonging to the office.

Waziri, however, said banks helped the corrupt civil servants to siphon the pension funds in their desperation to make money.

“Without bank collusion, they could not have stolen these billions, it is the banks and they knew it,” she said.

The committee has however, asked the Police to investigate the allegations against the two anti-corruption personalities of the EFCC and report back to it.

Appearing before the committee, Mr. Christian Madubuike, an employee of the Police Pensions Office, admitted that several amounts totalling N5.9bn were paid into his accounts by the office between 2007 and 2012.