‘Jonathan Must Appear Before Reps’ …Senate Orders Arrest Of Marna, Others

The House of Representatives yesterday responded to critics of its invitation to President Goodluck Jonathan over the spate of bombings in the country.

The lawmakers said they have the constitutional backing to do so.

The Representatives also reminded Mr. Femi Otedola that he is as guilty, being a bribe giver, as Farouk Lawan who allegedly  collected it.

The reponse of the lawmakers was coming on the heels of Otedola’s reaction to the reinstatement of his companies on the list of those that collected foreign exchange but failed to utilise  it for the purpose of importing fuel.

Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed at a media interactive session on Thursday emphasized that the House  has not erred by inviting  the President for an interface on the security situation in the country.

he said: “ There is no exception, the House makes an application on issues bordering on what has been of national concern and in this instance,  the President and Commander-in-Chief who happens to be the father of the nation, we think he is the best person to throw light on efforts taken so far.

“Of course we are saddened by the occurring violence in the country, the bombings and criminal activities but we believe that as a nation and representatives of the people, if we don’t take a position on the matter things will go on unabated.

“With the way this violence has been spreading, we believe that we need to get proactive and the best way to do it is to get Mr. President and his Service Chiefs to interface with us and be able to know what exactly the constraints are and what are their efforts.

Saying that the Representatives were not unaware of the debate the invitation has generated, Mohammed noted that some critics believed that the House overstepped its  bounds with the invitation.

He said: “I want to say clearly here that we have not, in anyway overstepped our bounds. We said it in our legislative agenda that we intend to interface with other arms of government to the benefit of Nigerians and this is just one of it.

“Remember, Mr. President at the wake of subsidy introduction had to invite us to the Villa, we had light lunch with him, 360 of us, including 109 Senators, we were in the Villa, nobody complained, we listened to him and told him our own piece of mind as far as the subsidy issue is concerned.”

Meanwhile, Nigerian Senate, yesterday, adopted 104 out of 126 recommendation of its probe committee on pension fraud, ordering the immediate sack, arrest and prosecution of the embattled chairman of the pension task force team, Mr Abdulasheed Maina ,  27 senior police officers, among others, over N275billion pension fund.

While the Senate moves to address the rot in the Pensions system, another N58billion pension money has been declared missing in the office of the Head of Service, where the sum of N1.7billion meant for payment of death benefits to the families of late workers were allegedly  diverted by some senior officers. Already, some staff of the ICPC were also indicted in the monumental   fraud.

Adopting the committee’s report,  the Senate specifically ordered Maina and his team to refund another N15billion allegedly diverted into personal pockets by the task force team.

The Economic and Financial Crime  Commission(EFCC) is to further investigate the transfer of the N4.6billion from the UBA to Union Bank plc and the transfer of another N7.6 billion from Zenith bank to Union bank.

It asked the office of the Accountant General of the Federation to recover another unspent N43. 2billion pension fund deposited in various banks.

Senate President, David Mark at plenary expressed deep disappointment over the  looting and warned that if found out to be true, Marina and his co-travellers must relise that they have reeped from the blood of innocent pensioners.

Mark at the stormy session also threatened to sign the warrant of the arrest of the embattled chairman of the pension task team in the event he fails again to appear before the panel to explain his role in the alleged looting of over N275billion pension money.

He said that anybody indicted in the fraud would face the music no matter how highly placed he or she is in the society.

Senate resolution followed the adoption of the senators recommendations on the missing funds.

Throwing some light on the amount, Vice Chairman of the committee, Kabiru Gaya, said the records of the balance of N58.715billion was still missing at the office of the Head of Service.

He said, “within six years, the Head of the civil service received a total of N216billion as pensions. It only spent N154billion, remaining a balance of N58.7billion.

“We made efforts to get records of the balance of N58.7billionthroughout the period of the investigation and we did not get any.”

He noted that about N1.76billion earmarked for the settlement of the families of dead pensioners was diverted by the office of Head of Service to recurrent expenditure leaving the families without the benefits.

The  panel in its recommendation  specifically observed an entrenched corruption and fraud at the pensions department of the Head of the Civil Service.

But the senate at the end of the robust debate on the report said that the executive must implement the pensions report as adopted by the Senate to prove that it is not complicit to the corruption and pillages revealed in the nation’s pensions system.

The Senate agreed with the committee that “the unspent balance of pension funds to the tune of N58,715,239, 159.66 should be mopped up by the Accountant General of the Federation and transferred to the pension arrears with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Where the funds could not be traced in such accounts, the accounting officer should be held responsible

The Senate also identified a total of N43.21billion of Police Pensions as unspent.

The committee had noted that a total of N1.025trillion was received by all the pension offices between 2005 and 2011, but only N751.444billion was spent within the period, leaving a balance of  N273.941billion.

The Senate resolved that “the outstanding pension fund balances of N273.941billion in all the pension offices of the Federal Government be mopped up by the Account General of the Federation and be used to settle all outstanding pension entitlements.

The report noted that the fake and dead pensioners which the exercises are intended to weed out are protégé of the relevant pension officials.

Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi, Abuja

Rivers State Deputy Governor, Engr Tele Ikuru (right) representing the governor cuts the tape, assisted by Prof Ebiagberi Alagoa (centre), His Eminence Chukumela Nnam Obi II (left) at the first Rivers Tourism Summit, at Assembly Auditorium, Port Harcourt, yesterday. Photo: Chris Monyanaga