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DAILYTRUST
Friday, April 17, 2015
BUSINESS
Lagos ex-civil servants
lament pension irregularities
From Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen,
Lagos
R
etired civil servants who were employed
by the Lagos State Government are
groaning over the alleged irregularities
in their pension funds administration and
processing in the state.
The retirees blamed the situation on the
alleged corrupt attitude of the officials the
Lagos State Pension Commission (PENCOM).
The pensioners said that their retirement
gratuities were processed on ‘man-knowman basis’, a euphemism for favouritism and
nepotism.
Although the Director-General, Lagos
State PENCOM, Mr. Rotimi Hussein,
debunked the allegation made by some of
the retired civil servants in the state that they
have not been paid their pension since 2011,
scores of pensioners who spoke with our
correspondent expressed their dissatisfaction
with “irregularities in the pension process.”
Findings by Daily Trust during a visit to the
PENCOM office in the state revealed that some
pensioners, under the old pension scheme,
have yet to fulfill conditions that could enable
them get their pension allowances.
But as the government continued to settle
the monthly allowances of pensioners under
the old scheme, the new scheme provided
a relief because at the time of an officer’s
retirement, the state government is only
required to issue a retirement bond to the
retiring officer, indicating the grade level,
number of years in service and the amount
the officer is entitled to.
This information is then provided to the
officer’s Pension Funds Administrator (PFA)
for issuance of cheque.
However, one of the aggrieved pensioners,
Mrs. Bolajoko Aderinto, explained that the
Lagos State Government keyed into the
new pension scheme in 2007 and many civil
servants were allowed to join the scheme by
choosing from the list of approved Pension
Funds Administrators (PFAs) to manage their
monthly retirement contributions.
Aderinto said: “In my case, the PFA added
the five years contribution I had with them
because I was among those who joined the
scheme in 2007 and I was due for retirement in
2012. They gave me a cheque after deducting
PFA commission and taxes and I was told the
amount on the cheque was about 50 to 60
per cent of the total money I was entitled to
while the balance is retained for the monthly
scheme. But what they are given to me is far
less than 50 per cent of my salary when I was
in service.”
Another pensioner, Mrs. Fausat Adaranijo,
said that the delay in issuing bonds to process
pensioners’ gratuities was unnecessary, adding
that without the bonds, it would be impossible
for a PFA to issue cheques to pensioners.
According to her, it took the intervention
of a senior officer at the Lagos pension office
to get her documents processed last year, after
she retired in 2012.
She said: “Under the new pension system,
we were supposed to get our gratuity when
we are leaving the service or, at most, three
months after we must have left. But to sort out
retiree’s documents is a problem. What they
do at the pension office is to process for those
who ‘settle’ them first, whether the person is a
senior or junior officer, they don’t care.
“For me, I made up my mind that I was not
going to bribe anybody because it was my right
and my sweat. You find out that somebody
that retired in 2013 had his or her gratuity
processed before those who retired in 2010.
Somebody eventually helped me out.”
The Director General, Lagos PENCOM,
Rotimi Hussein, however, debunked the
allegations of the ex-civil servants, saying
that there were no irregularities in the
administration and processing of both the
gratuities and pensions of retirees.
Corrections
We apologise for both
errors.
The National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS) has reported
that the Consumer Price Index
(CPI) which measures inflation
rose by 8.5 percent (year-onyear), marginally higher from
the rate of 8.4 percent recorded
in February this year.
This latest inflation rate of
8.5 percent was the highest
recorded in August 2014 before
declines were seen.
Business mogul and President of
the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko
Dangote has shown interest in the
construction of the 4th Mainland
Bridge because of his petroleum
refinery to be cited at the Lekki
Free Trade Zone, the Lagos State
Commissioner for Works and
Infrastructure, Dr. Obafemi
Hamzat, has disclosed.
Hamzat revealed this, yesterday,
during the state’s 2015 ministerial
briefing held at the Lagos State
Government Secretariat, Alausa,
Ikeja, noting that the bridge
alignment would be changed for
the project to become a reality.
In his words: “It was difficult for
the state government to embark
on the previous alignment for the
construction of the bridge because
of its huge requirements and
expenses. To construct a kilometre
of that bridge is about N40 billion,
so the issue is that we also need to
factor the cost of demolishing over
300 buildings into the project. A
lot of these buildings are beautiful
houses.”
By Hamisu Muhammad
 From left: Executive Director (Business Development) Jaiz Bank, Mahe Abubakar; Managing
Director Jaiz Bank, Muhammad Nurul Islam; Clerk, National Assembly, Salisu Abubakar Mai
Kasuwa; Company Secretary, Jaiz Bank Salaudeen Rukayat Oziama; and Relationship Officer,
Public Sector, Jaiz Bank Hameed Sheriff Ayo, when Jaiz Bank’s team visited the Clerk in his office
at the National Assembly, yesterday.
Inflation jumped to 8.5% in March – NBS
By Francis Arinze Iloani
From Femi Akinola, Lagos
NDIC, FMBN access
Kontagora House
fire incident
Professor Charles O. Ofoegbu
was Head of Exploration
Research, NNPC Research
and Production Division,
not Director of Exploration
as we inadvertently referred to
him in an interview (Develop
coal power to avoid frequent
disruption – Prof. Ofoegbu)
on page 26 of our Tuesday
April 14, 2015, edition.
In our special publication
on health on Tuesday April
14, 2015, we erroneously
referred to Dr Ahmad
Mahmoud Shaker, Chief
Medical Director, Katameya
Firstcall Hospital, Abuja as
Dr. Olayinka Olatise.
Dangote
interested in
4th Mainland
Bridge –Lagos
commissioner
This is also the fourth
consecutive month of a faster
increase in the Headline index
to reach the highest inflation
rate recorded for the year 2014.
“While the pace of increase
in food prices held firm for the
second consecutive month, the
faster increase in the headline
index was driven by increases
in the non-food COICOP
divisions,” the NBS stated in the
report released yesterday.
Analyses of the report showed
that food prices as observed by
the Food Sub-index increased
at relatively the same pace in
March as in February, by 9.4
percent.
The pace of increases was
weighted upon by a slower
increase in the bread and cereals,
oils and confectionary fats, dairy
groups.
Faster increases were observed
in all other groups which
contribute to the food sub-index.
Meanwhile, the pace of
advances recorded by the core
sub-index increased for the third
consecutive month in March.
The core sub-index increased
by 7.5 percent (year-on-year),
0.5 percentage points from 7.0
percent recorded in February.
Prices increased at a faster
pace in most divisions that
contributed to the core sub-index,
except for the communications,
and recreational and culture
divisions increased at a slower
pace.
The managements of the Nigeria
Deposit Insurance Corporation
(NDIC) and that of Federal
Mortgage Bank of Nigeria
(FMBN) have assessed the extent
of the unfortunate fire incident
that occurred, Wednesday, at
the Mamman Kontagora House,
Lagos.
NDIC and FMBN are housed in
the building.
The managements, however,
said that no lives or sensitive
documents were lost as a result of
the fire incident.
“Luckily no life was lost and no
sensitive document was destroyed
because the fire mostly affected the
Marina side of the building” the
NDIC said in a statement issued
by its spokesperson, Hadi S. Birchi.
Daily Trust learnt that the
Managing Director of NDIC,
Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, and
his FMBN counterpart, Alhaji
GimbaYa’u Kumo, have visited
the building to assess the extent
of the damage. “Although the fire
had since been put out, it had
become necessary to temporarily
relocate all the NDIC staff from
the Mamman Kontagora House
to NECOM House, No 15 Marina,
Lagos to ensure continuity of
service and to enable the fire
service and other experts to assess
the extent of damage.”