Dr Ngozi Olejeme
Fresh details have emerged on how the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) under the chairmanship of under-prosecution Dr. Ngozi Olejeme paid out the sum N17.158 billion from its Skye Bank and First Bank accounts into various untraceable accounts belonging to individuals and companies between January and December 2013.
The 2018 audit report, aside fingering Olejeme and her team at NSITF in 2013, also revealed elements of fraud in the opaque payments which the audit report said were made without proper documentation, and in some cases, verbal directives as the paper work detailing due process were not found.
Olejeme was appointed Chairman of NSITF by the late Umar Yar’Adua in 2009 and she served in that capacity until 2015 when she was fired by President Muhammadu Buhari. Before her dismissal by Buhari, petitions from insiders and some persons conversant with operations at NSITF under her stewardship had raised the red flag on cases of financial heist within the Fund.
Cases of contract splitting, contract padding, diversion of funds to personal pockets and corporate accounts of her cronies were alleged to have become the norm under her.
On account of the petitions and complaints, Olejeme was investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and has since been charged to court.
In October 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Olejeme before a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) high court in Jab presided over by Justice Maryam Hassan Aliyu, on a nine-count charge bordering on alleged diversion of public funds and money laundering to the tune of N69 billion. She had pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against her.
Recall that in July 2020, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had ordered the interim forfeiture of 48 properties allegedly owned by Olejeme.
But more details have emerged on how she ran the NSITF like a personal estate, as an insider described her stewardship.
Following investigations and scrutiny of the audit report on NSITF by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, certain audit queries were discovered, thus:
“Management of NSITF as shown in statements of Account No. 1750011691 with Skye bank plc, for the period 1st January, 2013 to 20th December, 2013, and Statements of Account No.2001754610 with First Bank Plc for the period 7th January, 2013 to 28th February, 2013, transferred amounts totalling N17,158,883,034.69billion to some persons and companies from these accounts.
“However, payment vouchers relating to the transfers together with their supporting documents were not provided for audit. Consequently, the purpose(s) for the transfers could not be authenticated.
“These are in violation of Financial rule 601 which states that “All payment entries in the cashbook/accounts shall be vouched for on one of the prescribed treasury forms. Vouchers shall be made out in favour of the person or persons to whom the money is actually due.
“Under no circumstances shall a cheque be raised, or cash paid for services for which a voucher has not been raised”.
The audit query prompted the Senate committee headed by Senator Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South) to interrogate NSITF’s past and present managements on where monies totalling N17.158billion were transferred to between January and December 2013.
The current managing director of NSITF, Dr Michael Akabogu, and his team could not convince the senate committee while appearing before it on how huge sums were wired out of NSITF account without proper documentation and approval.
Senator Urhoghide said: “This committee has given you people more than enough time to respond to queries slammed on NSITF in the 2018 Audit report by the office of Auditor General of the Federation .
“The queries are 50 in number ranging from one misappropriation to the other in billions of Naira. The one on N17.158billion multiple transfers carried out in 2013 has not been answered at all, not to talk of N5.5billion allegedly diverted into a commercial bank account without approval, N2.2billion unauthorized Investment without adequate records etc.
“These are completely unacceptable and the committee will make sure that these queries are sustained if required evidential documents on monies spent or misappropriated, are not provided.”
