Late Director was Sacked for Fraud, Says Kogi Govt

Yekini Jimoh

The Kogi State Government yesterday disclosed that the late Director in the state civil service, Mr. Alphonsus Ameh, was sacked due to his alleged involvement in fraudulent diversion of over N225 million pensioners’ fund.

The late director died last Tuesday after allegedly receiving his sack later from the state government.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Kogi State Governor, Mrs. Petra Onyegbule, disclosed this to journalists yesterday while reacting to the death of the director.

According to her, the late Ameh and four others in the State Pension Board were sacked due to misappropriation of pensioners’ fund amounting to N225,936,425. 72.

She mentioned other culprits as Mrs. Florence Adewunmi, Chairperson of the Pensions Board; Mrs. Haruna Amina Mudi, Director Accounts; Mr. Abdul Musa, Deputy Director Accounts, and Mr. Itodo Gabriel, Head of Accounts of the State Pension Board.

The CPS noted that a nineman senior management committee was set up by the state government, which had Mr. Aiyedero Jethro, the acting Permanent Secretary as Chairman, and Mr. John Ekele, the acting DAF as the Secretary for fair hearing.

She added that an emergency meeting of the committee was held on May 4, 2017, which drew the attention of the members to the report from the State Intelligence Bureau and the review of the same by state Auditor-General, Yusuf Okala.

Onyegbule said the report was on a case of misappropriation of pensioners’ fund, forwarded to the office of the Head of Civil Service by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) where the governor had directed that immediate action be taken appropriately.

“In the report, the auditor general recommended the immediate dismissal of all civil servants indicted in the police report.

“The personal confession by Ameh to the State Intelligence Bureau and that he (Ameh) has commenced repayment attested to the fact that he actually committed the fraud.

“The late Ameh confirmed to the committee that he received the sum of N2 million as his own share of the looted pensioners’ fund, which he thought was a Christmas bonus.

“Ameh also confirmed that he had refunded part of the money, and pleaded that the committee should temper justice with mercy considering the numbers of years he had spent in the service.

“The committee said that since Ameh affirmed his participation in the sharing of the misappropriated fund, coupled with the fact that he (Ameh) had commenced refunding part of the money, also confirmed that he was guilty of the offence.

“The committee added that Ameh has violated the Public Service Rule (PSR) No. 4, section 04401 No. VIII, XI and XII, liable to dismissal from the service, and therefore recommended that the punishment stipulated by the PSR should be upheld as a deterrents to other civil servants.”