Mark slams pension fund looters

[DT]

Senate President David Mark yesterday berated those looting pension funds, saying they were living on "blood money."  

Speaking at the FCT zonal public hearing by the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service and State and Local Government Administration, on the management of pension funds, Mark said pension fund administrators were among the richest in Nigeria because they were embezzling elder statesmen's entitlements.  

Mark, represented by Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba, said, "Those who have stolen pension funds cannot live in peace because the prayers of the retirees will hunt them and their grandchildren for living on the blood money".

"The moral strength of any nation is determined by the way she treats the most vulnerable and appreciates those who have served meritoriously. If we have not appreciated these people, then, it is a blot to our collective conscience as a nation," he added.

Responding to the Edo State Head of Service Mrs. Ekiwa Eneh's claim that the Federal Government was owing the state over N970 million pension funds, the chairman of the committee, Senator Aloysius Etok, ordered Director General of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM)Muhammed Ahmad and the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Isa Bello Sali, to provide within two weeks, information on the total number of pensioners in the country and the modality for the payment of those who retired between 2007 and 2011. The PENCOM boss later told journalists that the alleged fraud in the administration of pension funds was peculiar to the old system, noting, however, that "the new contributory pension scheme cannot succeed if the old system fails".

DailyTrust