Imported User:
A N2.7bn scam is said to be rocking the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) led by its national President, Comrade Ali Abatcha.
Sources within the Pension Reform Task Team told LEADERSHIP that the bank accounts of the Union were allegedly used as a conduit to siphon pensioners’ funds from the Office of Head of Service of the Federation (HOS).
The sources who sought anonymity said that the funds were illegally transferred in the guise of check off dues payment to the union a development that was said to have led to the prosecution of the NUP President and others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The sources added that the leadership of the union teamed up with the pension cabal to fight the pension task team and said that one of such sponsored attack was the recent protest by some pensioners from the Abuja units of pensioners.
The source said, “They vowed to fight our team to a standstill because of what we are doing in the country; the country is so corrupt that someone can kill any member of your family because you exposed his evil ways.
“All efforts by the Federal Government to restore sanity in the pension scheme is suffering set back because some people do not have the interest of the country at heart”.
But faulting the allegation, NUP President, Comrade Ali Abatcha, said that there was nothing like ghost pensioners as far as NUP was concerned because “no one knows the actual number of pensioners in the country.
Comrade Abatcha also told LEADERSHIP that the allegation was the handiwork of the Pension Reform Task Team which he claimed was using some members of the union to polarise the union.
He described the alleged embezzlement of N2.7bn by the union leadership as totally untrue and a calculated attempt to misguide the public and members of the union.
On his union’s relationship with the Pension Reform Task team, Abatcha said “We don’t have any relationship with the Pension Reform Task Team they are the ones that are polarising the union using divide and rule tactics”.
