Fakoyejo OlalekanThe National Pension Commission (PenCom) has absolved its director general (DG), Aisha Dahir-Umar, of financial impropriety made against her.
PenCom said its attention was drawn to some reports alleging that Dahir-Umar was paid millions of dollars during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 for estacode.
In a statement released on Sunday, PenCom stated that the report is a work of fiction, as documents were manufactured, and non-existent bank accounts were mentioned to prove the fabricated story.
PenCom said it is impossible for Dahir-Umar to be paid millions of dollars even if she went abroad for two years, adding that the year mentioned was also during the period international travels were restricted globally.
The commission linked the allegation to politics, stating people are jostling for appointments due to the current political climate.
According to the commission, the discredited allegations are being recycled at the slightest opportunity, and notorious online outlets are being used to push the lies to unsuspecting readers.
In the statement, PenCom said: “Management would like to alert the public to the renewed campaign of outrageous falsehood against the National Pension Commission (PenCom) and its Director General, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, over some imagined financial impropriety. Although the promoters of this fiction went to the extent of manufacturing documents and listing non-existent bank accounts to make the fabrication look real, a fiction remains a fiction and can never become the truth no matter how many times it is repeated and recycled.
“It was alleged that the Director General was paid millions of dollars as estacodes for foreign trips she did not embark upon in 2020. This poor attempt at calumny is exposed by the fact that there was a global lockdown in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic during which international travels were restricted. Offices were shut down and most people had to hold virtual meetings. It is, thus, most outlandish to suggest that any government agency would claim to be paying allowances to its officials for international travels when most airports were shut down globally.
“More so, official foreign trips require strict documentation, including air tickets, stamped passport pages and evidence of number of days spent. Rates for estacodes are standardised. If the DG were to spend two years abroad without returning to the country for one day, it would still be impossible for her to claim a million dollars as estacode. The desperate fabricators need to respect the intelligence of Nigerians.
“We are aware of current political intrigues in the country caused by the jostling for appointments, but we believe there are more decent ways of going about it than peddling tales by moonlight and using notorious online outlets to push the lies to unsuspecting readers. The public is implored to ignore these fake documents and the discredited allegations being recycled at the slightest opportunity. The Commission has nothing to hide and will continue to run a transparent and accountable system.”
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