By Emeka Okafor
A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged (CENTREP) has called on President Bola Tinubu and the nation’s anti-graft agencies to urgently investigate the Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Mrs. Maureen Alagoa over the alleged fraudulent approval and payment of N47 million gratuity to herself while still in office.
CENTREP’s National Chairman, Mr. Oghenejabor Ikimi, Esq., who briefed journalists at a news conference in Effurun, Delta State on Tuesday, noted that the alleged fraudulent payment of the gratuity amounts to abuse of office by Mrs. Alagoa.
Ikimi, a seasoned human rights lawyer, charged President Tinubu to set-up a high-powered panel of inquiry into what he described as monumental fraud currently rocking NSITF to return sanity and probity to the agency.
He also called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to urgently step into the allegation preferred against the embattled NSITF Managing Director.
“It is important to note that the NSITF is the only Governmental Institution backed up by law to ensure that all 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 had become a cesspool of unbridled corruption and fraudulent activities since the time of Dr. Michael Akabuogu, and the current MD, Mrs. Maureen Allagoa.
“We had thought that after the unceremonious sacking of the immediate past Managing Director Dr. Michael Akabuogu by former President Muhammadu Buhari over 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 will 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. Maureen Allagoa, another stooge of Dr. Chris Ngige, approved and paid herself over N47 million naira as gratuity while still in office against global best practices and extant rules of NSITF.
“The MD, Mrs. Maureen Allagoa, through an internal memo with a Reference Number: NSITF/AC/I&A/5/S.4/B117 dated 3rd July 2023, from PM, Audit & Inspectorate, routed through AGM, Head, Audit & Inspectorate to the DGM, Head, Audit & Inspectorate reportedly paid herself N47m gratuity.
“In the memo titled; “RE: Gratuity Computation for Mrs. Maureen Allagoa- (Aa/11272) for the period of service from September 2016 to February 2023 as General Manager and Executive Director respectively;” she approved and paid herself gratuity for the period she served as General Manager and Executive Director, a development that has created tension amongst the management and staff of the agency. This gratuity payment to herself was made as over 500 staff who retired in the past 5 years are been owed their retirement benefits. The DGM Audit, should explain how she approved the payment when she denied other retired officers their entitlement.
“We have not forgotten that the current MD, Mrs. Maureen Allagoa was alleged by the sacked former NSITF MD, Dr. Michael Akabogu of buying a house worth 180million Naira through contracts she used her companies to float when she was ED Administration, and till date the MD has not issued a statement to deny the allegation.
“We are inundated on how the current MD in connivance with the former Minister for Labour and Productivity re-employed retired civil servants in NSITF against the FUND extant rules.
“It’s also reported how the MD, Mrs. Maureen Allagoa against established rules of employment, had engaged Mr. Akin as General Manager Procurement a retired procurement officer re-engaged to do her dirty deals to commit illegality at the Agency.
“We, therefore, called on Mr. President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to as a matter of urgency set-up a high-powered panel of inquiry into the monumental fraud going on at NSITF in the interim in a bid to rescue Fund from the mindless grip of this current management Exco who are bent on defrauding and looting the Fund.
“By Section 24 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) we owe our Nation the duty to call upon the ICPC, EFCC, and other anti-graft agencies to as a matter of urgency swing into action and investigate this current allegation of fraud in NSITF with a bid to bringing the perpetrators of this mindless looting and misappropriation of the Agency’s Fund to book”, Ikimi said.
