The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has faulted allegation of financial impropriety levelled against its Director-General, Aisha Dahir-Umar, insisting that the Commission has nothing to hide.
A press release issued by the Commission’s management Sunday alleged that the promoters of accusation went to the extent of manufacturing documents and listing non-existent bank accounts to make the fabrication look real, a claim it stressed can never become the truth, no matter “how many times it is repeated and recycled”.
“It was alleged that the Director General was paid millions of dollars as estacodes for foreign trips she did not embark upon in 2020. This poor attempt at calumny is exposed by the fact that there was a global lockdown in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic during which international travels were restricted. Offices were shut down and most people had to hold virtual meetings. It is, thus, most outlandish to suggest that any government agency would claim to be paying allowances to its officials for international travels when most airports were shut down globally.
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“More so, official foreign trips require strict documentation, including air tickets, stamped passport pages and evidence of the number of days spent. Rates for estacodes are standardised. If the DG were to spend two years abroad without returning to the country for one day, it would still be impossible for her to claim a million dollars as estacode. The desperate fabricators need to respect the intelligence of Nigerians” PenCom dismissed.
The Commission said it is aware of current political intrigues in the country caused by the jostling for appointments, still, posited that there are more decent ways of going about it than peddling tales by moonlight and using notorious online outlets to push the lies to unsuspecting readers.
Following this, PenCom implored the public to ignore “fake documents and the discredited allegations being recycled at the slightest opportunity, declaring that it has nothing to hide and will continue to run a transparent and accountable system.
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