Nigeria’s pension industry regulator, the National Pension Commission (PenCom), has declared its readiness to open its books for scrutiny, saying it has nothing to hide.
This comes amid mounting allegations of fraud and illegal recruitments in the commission.
Aisha Dahir-Umar, director-general of PenCom, in a statement at the weekend said the commission was aware of a coordinated plan to bring it into disrepute with frivolous petitions to the anti-graft agencies in collaboration with disgruntled insiders.
Dahir-Umar got into office as head of PenCom under very controversial circumstances, courting allegations of abuse of office and other speculations she has neither denied nor accepted.
Now she says disgruntled insiders and their external collaborators are the ones plotting to drag PenCom in the mud.
“These elements, some of whom are yet to come to terms with the fact that PenCom is no longer at their beck and call, have been sponsoring negative media reports and getting faceless groups to write frivolous petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),” Dahir-Umar said.
“Although some low-level media outfits are giving a voice to these defamatory petitions, those who know how we conduct our affairs at PenCom are not in any way bothered. Since | took over as the DG, we have undertaken far-reaching reforms within the organisation which are yielding positive results,” she said.
Describing the era of “anything goes” as long dead and buried, the PenCom DG said those who think they can use the commission to make money or that they should be the ones calling the shots are bitterly disappointed and are sponsoring false publications and trumped-up petitions.
‘We will cooperate fully with the agencies. Our message to the disgruntled elements today is exactly as it was yesterday: we will not allow anyone to pilfer pension funds for self-aggrandizement. It will never happen under my watch,” she said.
Dahir-Umar added that if PenCom had anything to hide, “we would have surrendered to the agents of blackmail who have been on our case since 2017 when I became acting DG”.
