SOKOTO — Five management staff of the Sokoto state Primary Staff Pension Board have been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly diverting N553.985,644.1.
The staff includes Abubakar Aliyu, Hassana Moyi, Haliru Ahmad, Kabiru Ahmad, and Dahiru Muhammad Isa who are Secretary, Director of Finance and Supply, deputy Director of Finance, and Supply, Accountant and Cashier of the board respectively.
The money was meant for the payment of retired teachers’ gratuities and pension.
The staff was arraigned before the Sokoto High Court on 28 count-charge bordering on forgery, criminal breach of trust and misappropriation, which were contrary to sections 92 (2), 311, of the Penal Code law CAP 89, Laws of Northern Nigeria, and Sections 351, 353, 348 of the Sokoto Penal Code law 2019.
The Zonal Head of EFCC, Usman Bawa Kaltungo, said the staff used forged vouchers, withdrew and shared monies meant for pension and gratuities of primary school teachers in the state.
According to Kaltungo, the money was withdrawn in tranches.
He said the agency acted on a petition brought to them by one of the affected pensioners, saying between January 17, 2017, and March, 2020, the Director of Finance withdrew the sum of N83.2 million from their account with Polaris Bank.
“During the same period, Haliru and Kabiru withdrew 203,217,770.71 and 266,567,053 respectively from the same account in the name of pensioners,” he said
“We had to pay for the transport fares of some of the pensioners before they could come and testify and they were shocked to find out that their long-awaited pensions and gratuities had been diverted.”
Kaltungo hoped that the court would do justice.
Another EFCC official said, “With all this money that they had withdrawn, we could not recover anything from them. This is why we are suspecting they were withdrawing from some top government functionaries which they refused to disclose to us.”
The case was adjourned till June 28 for the continuation of trial.
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