Thirty workers of Imo State Pension Board have been arrested and handed over to the Directorate of Security Services (DSS) for alleged N650million pension fraud.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, said: “Most of the fake cheques were written in the names of people who are not pensioners or who do not exist, while some were written in the names of pensioners who have three cheques or more, but only one has the actual amount they ought to have as their pensions, while the fake cheques in their names have amounts from N10million and above.
According to Mr Onwuemeodo, Governor Rochas Okorocha had cried out over steady rise in pension bills on a monthly basis, with the last bill amounting to N1.59 billion. He did verification upon verification to find out where the problems lied, to no avail.
After Writing cheques for payment of pension arrears, the governor asked for the cheques written for that purpose, and for days, he carefully looked at the cheques with some trusted aides. The discoveries were shocking.
Following discovery of fraud in pension cheques,the Government has decided to pay directly to the pensioners
The Governor warned that any official found guilty would be punished.”
