PENCOM PROBE: Ex-DG Eager to Set Records Straight

….Firms vow to expose panel Chairmen’s companies

The former Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Chinelo-Anohu Amazu, is eager to appear before the Joint Committee on Procurement Tuesday (today) to set the records straight on procurement under her tenure, reliable source close to the former PenCom boss has revealed.

This is even as several companies invited to the public hearing and PenCom have lampooned the timing and alleged selectiveness in the invitations to hearing as advertised in some national dailies, alleging cover-ups.

They also faulted a situation where the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Procurement, Hon. Wole Oke, “who was publicly and pointedly accused by the former Chairman of another ongoing House probe of missing N33 PenCom fund and other allegations of corruption and illegalities under the Acting DG, Mrs. Aisha Dahiru-Umar, of trying to bribe him to kill the probe, has suddenly began to seat over another probe”.

Speaking, a source close to the former DG, Anohu-Amazu, said: “The former DG was overseas when she was informed of a publication on Thursday indicating that there would be a public hearing on Monday over procurements under her tenure as DG. She quickly cut short her trip and returned to the country at the weekend to make sure she appeared before the House to set the records straight.

“It is public knowledge that her tenure as DG has been hailed by both and international stakeholders as a brilliant one underscored by due process, transparency, and accountability”, the source said.

However, a Director in one of the invited firms alleges cover-up and diversionary tactics between the Chairman of the panel, Hon. Wole Oke and the Acting DG, Mrs. Dahir-Umar.

“You see, some companies that carried out procurements at PenCom in the period under review were carefully left out in the list of companies invited to the hearing. For instance, Wole Oke has several companies, including DEBRA_K Ltd., with which he does business at PenCom. We didn’t see it.

“In fact, It is an open secret that he has been surreptitiously running PenCom by proxy, using Aisha to milk the Commission dry. For this reason, Wole Oke has done everything possible to protect the Acting DG, Aisha, and does not want her to submit the documents requested by the ongoing House probe regarding suspected phony contracts, as those documents will indict him.

“The Co-Chair of this panel and Chairman of House Committee on Pension, Hon. Hassan Shekarau also has Wadata Communication Ltd. and several other companies with which he has executed many contracts at PenCom. They were not listed . But we are going to lay all that bare at the hearing. Nobody is a child here.

Meanwhile, a Director in another coy, who also craves anonymity since he preferred to read out the company’s written memoranda at the hearing instead, wondered why the “so-called” investigation was coming one whole year after the House resolution.

“It is clear that that House resolution on 20th May 2018, which was masterminded by Wole Oke, was a phony one. Some people probably thought that the then DG had made so much money and wanted her and the Commissioners, who served under her to run, tails in-between their legs, to beg them and settle. So, when that didn’t happen, they lost the motivation to execute the House resolution.

“Now, when the House authorised another panel which is doing a thorough job over the missing N33 billion, contract scams, 300 percent increase of her exit benefits and salaries, collection of hundreds of millions in Estacodes for local and foreign trips the Acting DG never embarked upon and other alleged illegalities by the Acting DG, Aisha Dahir-Umar; when they saw that Hon. Agbonayinma refused to be bought despite overutures by Wole Oke and the Acting DG as Agbonayima alleged; when they saw that the  panel was closing in on them, they now came up with this kangaroo probe, after one year.

“It is a clear attempt to divert public attention from the already ongoing probe and to also buy time since the 8th National Assembly will end in about two weeks. More so, they saw that the panel has vowed to submit its report whether Aisha and PenCom submits the requested documents on the matters under investigation and whereabouts of the N33 billion or not.

“It is also curious that the Wole Oke kangaroo panel did not invite Aisha who was the Head of Procurement at PenCom since 2009 and throughout the period under its so-called investigation before she became Acting DG.

“In any case, we are going to meet them at the pubic hearing, hoping they would allow full media coverage. There are lots of things Nigerians needed to know”, our source said.

On his part, a mid-career staff of PenCom described the probe as “hogwash, selective, and diversionary”

“I have been here for over seven years. I can authoritatively say that PenCom is fast decaying. This is the first time we heard that money, a huge N33 billion is unaccounted for just in two years. That particular probe is what everybody has been looking forward to the outcome.

“We have also been wondering that M.K Ahmed under whose tenure most of the companies were awarded contracts was not invited to public hearing. The whole thing is targeted hogwash as far as we are concerned”, he stressed.

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