- NSITF: we shall soon brief media
The Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged (CENTREP) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to set up a panel of inquiry into the alleged fraudulent approval and payment of N47million gratuity by the Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Mrs. Maureen Alagoa, to herself.
The National Chairman of CENTREP and human rights lawyer, Mr. Oghenejabor Ikimi, Esq., made the call at a news conference in Effurun, Delta State.
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He also called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to step into the allegation against the embattled NSITF Managing Director.
According to him, the alleged fraudulent payment of the gratuity amounts to abuse of office by Mrs. Alagoa.
Ikimi said a probe into the “monumental fraud” in the NSITF would ensure return of sanity and probity to the agency.
A statement by the lawyer said: “It is important to note that the NSITF is the only governmental institution backed up by law to ensure employers of labour adhere to the employees’ compensation scheme.
“Nevertheless, as noble as the objective of setting up the NSITF is, sadly has failed in recent times in meeting its core mandate of providing safe-shelter-net for employees, but has become a cesspool of unbridled corruption and fraudulent activities since the time of Dr. Michael Akabuogu and the current MD, Mrs. Alagoa.
“We had thought that after the unceremonious sacking of the former Managing Director, Dr. Akabuogu, by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, over National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate forgery and the expiration of the tenure of the former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, who serially undermined the extant rules of the agency and was running NSITF as his personal estate through his stooges, one would have thought that the Fund would heave a sigh of relief.
“This was not to be, as the media was awash last week of how the current Managing Director of NSITF, Mrs. Alagoa, another stooge of Dr. Ngige, approved and paid herself over N47million as gratuity while still in office, against global best practices and extant rules of NSITF.”
Efforts to get reactions from the MD, proved unsuccessful.
But when contacted, the General Manager (GM), of Corporate Affairs, NSITF, Ijeoma Orji-Okoronkwo, said she could not confirm the development, as she is trying to “unravel” the allegation.
“I also saw the alleged payment in the media publications. I have requested details of the payments and the extant rules relied upon to process and pay the gratuity.
“I can only give an informed and knowledgeable position on the allegation to the media when I have all the requisite information that I’m engaged in the process now.
“We shall soon brief the media on the true position,” Orji-Okoronkwo said.