Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has revealed how the pension syndicate defrauded Nigeria of over N42 billion between 2010 and 2014.

The AGF, whose revelations were contained in a memo he submitted to the Senate Committee on Establishment probing the secret reinstatement of the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, stressed that many of the officials concerned are now jittery and have started seeking transfer out of the department.

The AGF in the written submission disclosed that “the office of Head of Service used to facilitate the fraud had 66 sepetate accounts for pensioners”, adding that “by 2014, the office usually presented 258, 000 pensioners for payment monthly, whereas the actual figure of pensioners stood at 141,762.”

Malami said that in the process, the syndicate defrauded the government of over N42 billion.

He added that as a result of the lid blown on the fraud, many of the officials who were around during the alleged scam are now lobbying to be transferred to other establishments to be away from the radar of investigation.

He also revealed that the pension syndicate had serious links with the villa to the point of plotting to assassinate Maina.

The AGF assured the Senate Committee that despite the controversy around Maina, his office would still go after the pension thieves.

He said that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are already finalising investigation of serving officials in the office of the Head of Service of the Federation linked to the scam.

He also said that the government would vigorously prosecute some of the pending cases against the pension scam suspects. According to the AGF, some of the pending cases of the pension thieves that would be pursued very vigorously in the coming year are the 21-count charge against Dr Sani Teidi, Omo Eric Uduesegbe and other companies before Justice Gabriel Kolawole; the 10-count charge against Abdul Moh’d and three other companies before Justice AFA Ademola and 13 other similar cases.

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