Governor Alex Otti has said that his government was going to press for the repatriation of members of a syndicate involved in pension fraud.
He made this known during the November edition of his interaction with the media and Abia people, saying that the syndicate was composed of civil servants, some of who are now living abroad after “stealing from Abia government”.
“But we are going to repatriate them,” Otti assured the people of Abia.
According to him, 11 members of the pension fraud syndicate have already been arrested by security agents, adding that he has directed that they should be arraigned in court without delay.
The Abia Governor expressed dismay that some members of the opposition were faulting the arrest of people found to be stealing from government.
“Those who said that I should not arrest thieves are thieves themselves,” he said.
Otti warned his critics against defending fraudsters in the name of politics, saying that “there is a limit to opposition”.
“We cannot be intimidated. Government has to do what it has to do. We’ll treat those defending thieves, as thieves,” he said.
Otti did not mention the total amount of money government lost to the pension fraudsters and the period of time their nefarious activities had lasted before they were nabbed.
However, government may have lost millions of naira to the fraudsters given the huge arrears pension arrears of N34 million which the Otti administration said it inherited from the last administration.
Otti also addressed the controversial issue of forfeited pension arrears and gratuities which the leadership of the Abia Council of Nigeria Union of Pensioners(NUP) said they were beguiled to sign off in a memorandum of agreement(MoA).
He foreclosed the possibility of revisiting the vexatious matter, insisting that the NUP leaders had signed the agreement hence it is binding on the parties concerned.
The governor expressed his anger over the claim by the NUP leadership that they were “deceived by government” into signing off a large chunk of unpaid pension arrears as well as total forfeiture of unpaid gratuities.
“They(NUP leaders) said that they did not sign, did not agree, and were deceived. But they received money,” Otti said.
He, therefore, stated that the only condition under which the issue of pension arrears would be revisited is for retirees to return the pension arrears they had been paid.
“They should return the money if they want us to revisit the memorandum of agreement,” he said.
Governor Ott had in March announced that he had cleared all the pension arrears inherited from the previous government, the leadership and members of Abia NUP have been contesting the governor’s claim.
According to them, the pension arrears that Otti actually cleared was the ones that accrued under his administration, adding that he has not touched the huge pension arrears he inherited from the past government