The shocking revelations which were substantiated by documents presented to the Senate committee also indicted former Head of Service of the Federation, Prof. Oladapo Afolabi and former Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim as beneficiaries of the scam.
They were said to have received the N240 million through the police pension task team for their overseas travels for the biometric exercise.
Assistant Chief Accountant in the Police Pension Office, Mr. Toyin Ishola, made this allegation in his testimony at the resumed hearing organised by the Senate committee investigating pension management in the country.
Ishola in documents he provided the committee, said the EFCC chairman, the former inspector-general of police and former head of service were among the 50 people penciled down to travel abroad to conduct biometric exercise for less than 20 retired police officers.
He added that the fund meant for the foreign trip was paid into the accounts of the three men.
According to the document submitted to the committee, Lamorde's name was number 11 on the list and he was supposed to travel to Atlanta, Georgia for the biometric exercise.
But, both Lamorode and Afolabi have denied the allegation, saying that there was no time any money was paid into their accounts.
They maintained that the account numbers listed in the document presented to the committee by the pension task force do not belong to them.
Lamorde said that 'I never travelled out of Nigeria even though my name is on the list that was to travel abroad for the biometric exercise and the account number on that list is not mine because I do not operate an account with First Bank.'
Prof. Afolabi also told the committee that he met a system in the civil service whereby anybody that has anything to do with pension in the country is compromised, adding that he tried as much as possible to do what he can to stop the mismanagement of pension.
Meanwhile, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in her testimony denied authorising the pension task force to continue in office beyond its mandate.
The minister also confirmed that there was no scam in the Police Pension Office as claimed because KPMG report exonerated the office and also told the committee that the task force saved N1billion.
However, the Senate committee made it known that one of the EFCC officials who was penciled down for the foreign trip rejected the offer and returned the money to the coffers of the pension task force.
The committee also asked the Pension Office of the Head of Serve to make provision for the list of acclaimed colonial pensioners; giving the number of still alive among the pensioners and the number of those who have died.
Maina, who admitted that he approved N240 million for foreign trips told the committee that he did not handle any funds in his office, as he also insisted that the former Inspector-General of Police indicated interest to travel abroad for the biometric exercise.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201203120969.html
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