Kaduna uncovers massive N1.3 billion state pension fraud

The Kaduna State Government has discovered a pension racket that costs the state N1.3 billion annually, Samuel Aruwan, spokesperson to Governor Nasir El-Rufai has said in a statement.
The spokesman said that the discovery was revealed during the verification exercise of pensioners in the state which was conducted recently.
The statement read:
“The report from the verification exercise was presented to the state Executive council yesterday and it showed that 2,484 ghost pensioners were identified and removed from the pension payroll.
“Another set of 1,404 were classified as probable ghost pensioners because, while they managed to get verified, they curiously failed to pick their pension cheques.
“In July 2015, the total pension payroll from the state and local governments stood at 18,265. It cost the state government N543,771,967.43 monthly to pay the pensioners. But at the end of the biometric verification exercise, only 15,781 pensioners were verified on the payroll.
“As many as 2,484 supposed pensioners did not show up at all. Of 15,781 pensioners that were verified, 1,404 pensioners did not collect their cheques, and they are being treated as probable ghosts.
“The Kaduna State Executive Council has ordered further investigations into the precise identities of the syndicate behind the pension scam,” the statement added.