Governor to prosecute 11 workers for pension fraud
Abia State Government says it identified about 11 civil servants involved in pension fraud and has vowed to prosecute next week.
Governor Alex Otti made this public Thursday in Umuahia during the monthly media chat tagged ‘Dr Alex Otti speaks to Abians’.
The governor stated that his administration had zero tolerance for corruption, disclosing that he had authorised that the suspects be arraigned in court in the next few days, even as he lampooned those defending one of the arrested pension fraud suspects.
“My question is somebody stole, and I arrested him, and you went to the press to say I shouldn’t arrest a thief. That means you are a thief.
“They are about 10 or 11. From the report I got, some of them are outside the country. We are going to repatriate them to answer to their sins,” he said, adding that the government would continue with its efforts to sanitise the civil service.
The Governor disclosed that once his government got convincing information of the pension fraud syndicate, it arrested the people involved.
“We continued 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 authorized that in the next few days, they (pension fraud suspects) should be arraigned before the court to come and tell us how come they were stealing from the State.
“From the report I got, about ten or eleven of them. Some of them are outside the country. We are going to repatriate them to answer to the State of their sins,” Otti stated.
He disclosed that his administration had been able to defray almost N90bn out of about N191bn inherited from May 29, 2023, maintaining that so far, his administration had not borrowed a kobo but had continued to fix roads, provide quality healthcare, renovate and upgrade schools, tackle security, among others.
