Pension: Senate summons bank chiefs, EFCC

THE Senate joint committee probing alleged scam in the administration of pension fund in the country on Tuesday insisted that seven banks’ chief executives must appear before it to explain their roles it the fraud.

Also, the Committee directed the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, to defend why he prevented a former Director at the Pension Office from appearing before it.

Chairman of the joint committee, Aloysius Etok, said the EFCC chairman must appear to clear his name in the face of allegations that he benefited from the foreign trip for the conduct of biometric verification.

The affected banks whose chief executives the committee asked for are First Bank, Skye, GTB, Fidelity, Union, Zenith and Diamond banks. Managing Directors of the seven banks and that of the United Bank for Africa had earlier been directed to appear before the committee on Tuesday.

The UBA’s Executive Director, North, Dan Okeke, who appeared before the probe panel on Tuesday however said he could not confirm if the bank received an authorisation letter from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation before it opened an account for police pensions to despite N3bn last year.

The Senate renewed summons came on the heels of granting of bails to six persons already charged with the N32.8bn scam in the police pension fund administration. The six, including a federal permanent secretary, were each granted bail by an Abuja High Court judge in the sum of N10m, with two sureties in like sum.

The bailed suspects are Esai Dangabar; a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Niger Delta, Atiku Abubakar Kigo; Ahmed Inuwa Wada; John Yakubu Yusufu; Veronica Uloma Onyegbula; and Sani Habila Zira.

Justice Abubakar Talba ordered that one of the two sureties must be a civil servant with a rank not lower than grade level 14 but the two sureties, who must be residents of the Federal Capital Territory, are also to submit two passport photographs, and depose to an affidavit of means that must be verified by the EFCC.

After granting the accused persons bail, Talba adjourned the matter till May 28, and June 4, 2012, for trial.

In granting the bail application, the court allowed the defence counsel’s plea that the accused persons be granted bail, and rejected the prosecution’s prayer asking it to continue to remand the suspects in custody.

The defence counsel, led by Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, and Mr. J. N. Egwuonwu, had argued that the court had no reason to deny the suspects bail, noting that the primary aim of bail was to secure the attendance of the suspects while the trial proceeded.

Awomolo, who represented Dangabar, stressed that “under the 1999 Constitution, an accused person enjoys the presumption of innocence, notwithstanding the nature of the charges”.

He further argued that the fear of the court that the accused persons might jump bail had become irrelevant “as we now live in an e-world” where nobody can hide.

Citing a corruption case involving a former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, Awomolo added that the “Federal Republic of Nigeria has the power to seek the extradition of any person who wants to escape justice.” He asked the court to ignore the “media blitz” trailing the case and make the bail “reasonable and achievable”.

Counsel to the other accused persons, Egwuonwu, adopted Awomolo’s submissions, adding that there was no evidence indicating that the suspects would jump bail.

He argued that the argument presented by the prosecution, asking the court to deny the suspects bail on the grounds that investigations into the pension fraud had not been concluded was not tenable.

Prosecution counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, on his part, asked the court to refuse the application on the grounds that investigations into the alleged fraud had not been concluded.

Jacobs noted that cases involving corruption should not be treated leniently in the country, considering the devastating effect that graft had had on the nation’s well-being.

“Any offence involving corruption cannot be regarded as a small offence in our country – it is a very serious offence”, he said.

Jacobs also faulted the defence counsel’s citing of the Ibori case to illustrate his claim that the government could always get hold of the accused persons and extradite them if they jumped bail.

“I argue that Ibori is not a good example in this case”, Jacobs said, prompting laughter in the courtroom.

Awomolo raised objections to Jacobs’ criticism of the Ibori example, and asked the judge not to be influenced by the prosecution counsel’s “opinion that Ibori was not a good example”.

Ruling on the application, an hour after the counsel had made their submissions, Talba said, “The issue of bail is at the discretion of the court but the court must weigh the balance of convenience in a case of this nature.

“It is a settled law that the accused persons are presumed innocent until the case is proved otherwise.

“They are entitled to breathe the air of freedom in line with the law so that they can adequately prepare themselves for trial.

“Having charged them to court, I presume that they (prosecution) have completed their investigation”.

The EFCC in a statement after the court proceedings said it would begin the trial of the six before Talba on May 28. The statement was signed by the spokesman for the anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren.

Meanwhile, the UBA Executive Director promised to return to the Senate join committee with a written memo to clarify the issues.

Although Okeke claimed that there was an approval, indications were that the approval came after the account was opened by the bank.

Upon further probing, Okeke informed the committee that a verbal directive could subsist for the opening of account, provided that a commitment that the letter of approval would be brought at a certain period was made.