Six persons have been arraigned on a six-count charge for alleged N50m pension fund scam at the Federal High Court, Umuahia, Abia State capital.
Three of the suspects, Onyebuchi Nwabueze, Mariam Azubuike, and Victor Samuel, are staff members of Pension Board, Auditor General’s office, the Ministry of Finance, respectively.
The charge sheet sighted by LEADERSHIP in Umuahia, dated October 11, 2024, was signed by C. N. Iheji, a senior state counsel for the Attorney-General of the State.
It alleged that the suspects and others, now at large, between January and October 2024, conspired to defraud the state government of funds meant for the pensioners.
According to the sheet, the Suit No FHC/UM/CR/199/24, was brought pursuit to Section 8 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act.
During his monthly media chat tagged “Governor Alex Otti Speaks To Abians” for this month, the governor had vowed that civil servants implicated in the scam will be prosecuted.
“We will continue with our efforts to sanitise the civil service. I’m sure you would have heard some reports about some civil servants who were involved in pension fraud.
“We are continuing with their prosecution. I have authorised that in the next few days, the suspects should be arraigned to tell us how come they were stealing from the state.
“From the report I got, there are about 10 or 11 of them. Some of them are outside the country. We are going to repatriate them to answer to the state of their sins,” thr governor had stated.
He expressed worry that some members of the opposition were castigating the state government for raising the matter, noting that the government would not retreat no matter who was involved.
“We can’t tolerate that kind of corruption. No matter who is involved, people who are defending thieves should be perceived and treated like thieves,” he noted.