HomeExclusive Dr.-Ngozi-Olejeme How Olojeme Stole N12billion From NSITF To Fund Her Governorship Bid

Former Chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, Mrs

Ngozi Olejeme went craze with public funds after conniving with top brass

of the agency to steal over N12billion, part of which she invested in her

failed Governorship bid, pointblanknews.com can reveal.

As soon as Mrs. Olojeme and others at the top hierarchy of NSITF pulled

out the huge sums from the NSITF, she embarked on a spending spree.

She declared her interest to run for governorship before the Delta State

Chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with whopping sum of N20million

cash, gave N50 million to the State PDP chairman and donated N3million

cash to each of the 25 Local Governments in the State, which amounts to a

mouth-watering N75million.
Mrs. Olojeme allegedly spent over N2billion, the biggest sum ever spent by

any aspirant for a primary election in Delta State and got just 11 votes

at the PDP primaries.
Now, NSITF is currently embroiled in a N12billion scandal. The workers’

union has an axe to grind with the management and board over the alleged

embezzlement of the N12billion Employees Compensation Scheme (ECS) between

2011 and 2014.
They want President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the anti-graft agency,

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the

misappropriation of the funds.
The lid was blown when some members of the in-house union picketed the

NSITF headquarters in Abuja to demand for backlog of entitlements.

They said the petition they wrote in 2015 to former President Goodluck

Jonathan did not see the light of the day because of the cozy relationship

between him and Dr. Ngozi Olejeme, the NSITF’s head.

Sources said the management has a case to answer for the missing fund,

accusing Dr. Ngozi Olejeme of being complicit as she deployed part of

the fund to finance her governorship aspiration in Delta State and the

campaign of former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

The petition seen by pointblanknews.com dated April 24th 2015, signed by

staff of the NSITF, titled: ‘Allegations of Fraud, Mismanagement and Poor

Staff Welfare against NSITF Management’, gave graphic details of the

sleaze in the organization.
The 25-paragraph petition reads in part, “the group regretted that few

years after the enactment of the Employees Compensation Act otherwise

known as ECA, 2010, which repealed the Workmen Compensation Act, that

saddles the NSITF management board with administering the scheme in such a

way that an average injured employee with injury in the course of work or

even at work will enjoy rehabilitation or compensation as the case may be,

the scheme is yet to meet the yearnings of the employees because of

serious “Nigeria factor”.
“Immediately the Act was signed and ready for implementation, the first

move by the board was to engage a consultant for recruitment. The

consultant charged hapless prospective employees N1, 000 each. It was

quite strange to see a social security organisation like the NSITF

displaying such crude mercantilist tendency. Till date the millions of

naira collected from the unfortunate jobless Nigerians in the name of

providing jobs for them remain guesswork.
“What even makes the whole thing more grating to the ear is the alleged

agreement by the NLC president, a member of the board of directors, to the

job scam.”
“The Federal Ministry of Labour that should provide the necessary

supervision by ensuring that the activities of the agency pass the litmus

test of public service rules abdicated its role for alleged fear of losing

face with the presidency.”
“Quite a number of former retired or retrenched staff of NSITF receiving

monthly pension were given fresh appointment and fresh confirmation of

their appointments. As an in-house union we complained that the

post-qualification experience for the advertised vacant positions in

national dailies in April 2011 was at variance with scheme of service of

NSITF and Public Service generally as there was no explicit requirement

for cognate experience. But after the 2011 recruitment exercise,

subsequent recruitments were allegedly carried out without interview as

letters were just being issued either in churches, mosques and various

cultural organizations.”
“From 2011 till date, recruitments are done without planning. Not even the

top executive management made up of the MD/CE and three executive

directors know the number of staff currently in the service of NSITF. The

board has completely appropriated the functions of management.”

“In Abuja alone, there are four branch offices of NSITF in addition to the

head office. The branches are in FCT, Mararaba, Kagini, and Gwagwalada

with an average of 200 staff. Some of the staff allegedly sits on plastic

chairs procured by them.”
“The NSITF board is allegedly the board of Trustfund Pensions Plc- a

pension fund administration established by NSITF with other social

partners. In the wisdom of the founding fathers the board of Trustfund

Pensions Plc was to be chaired by the MD of NSITF, to be supervised by the

board of NSITF as appointed by government. But today it is no longer the

case. With the alleged connivance of PenCom, the NSITF board is also the

board of Trustfund Pensions and of course every Nigerian knows that over

N50billion worth of pension assets is in the custody of Trustfund”.

“Is there any need for such collecting agents? The monthly wage bill of

NSITF is allegedly close to N1billion. How does the agency meet the cost

of industrial hazards? Yes, the Jonathan administration has signed ECA,

2010, but are the right people managing it? Let an independent auditor

look into the books of NSITF, and we shall see how much that place

stinks!”