The management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has said it is giving necessary assistance to the Senate to carry out its statutory oversight functions with regard to the N17.15 billion which was allegedly misappropriated from the agency between 2012- 2015.
It explained that the misappropriated fund was from 2012- 2015, adding that it emanated from the 2018 Audit Report of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
In a statement issued by the NSITF management yesterday, in Abuja, it said when the Senate Committee initiated the current probe in 2021, the agency had to set up an internal committee to retrieve from First Bank and Skye Bank, detailed transactions involving the NSITF under the period as requested by the Committee.
The management said relevant documents were subsequently submitted to the Senate Committee.
The statement reads: “And to further assist the Senate Committee in the performance of their function at their prompting, we equally invited the former Managing Directors – Munir Abubakar (2010-2016), Ismail Agaka (2016-2017), and Bayo Somefun (2017-2020), under whose tenures these infractions as reported in the Auditor General’s Report took place, to respond to some of the questions raised in the reports of 2018 which the Senate is probing.
“Nigerians who attended the Senate Public Hearing on Thursday, 11 August 2022, know and understand undoubtedly, that beyond mischief and the attempt to make a mountain out of a molehill, the circumstance under which reference was made to termites when one of the past Managing Directors claimed that the vouchers for the N5 billion payment made in 2013 would still be in a container in the compound of the fund.”
Explaining the extent of involvement of the current management of NSITF, the agency said: “We wish to officially make it clear without any shred of doubt that these financial infractions have nothing to do with the current management which is just a year old.
“They were rather financial violations and sleazes committed by the former management and board who superintended over the affairs of our organisation between 2012 and 2017. Some members of the present management team were not even staff members of the organisation at this period in question.”
The NSITF management traced the origin of the alleged fraud to 2015, when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), acting on petitions and tip-offs from whistleblowers, investigated the accounts of the NSITF and discovered massive looting to the tune of N62 billion.
It said the EFCC subsequently arrested and charged the former Chairman of the Board of NSITF, Ngozi Olejeme, and two other board members – Aderemi Adegboyaga and R.U. Uche to court.
According to the statement, others equally charged included former top management staff – former Managing Director, Abubakar, the Deputy General Manager Finance, Henry Ekhasomi and General Manager Legal, Adebayo Aderibigbe.