PenCom reacts to claim DG spent millions of dollars on estacodes

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has dismissed a claim that its Director-General, Aisha Dahir-Umar, spent millions of dollars as estacodes in 2020.

The commission was reacting to the allegation that Dahir-Umar received millions of dollars as estacodes during the COVID-19 lockdown three years ago.

In a statement issued on Sunday, PenCom described the claim as an outrageous falsehood.

It added that the people behind the claim listed fake documents and non-existent bank accounts to back the allegation against Dahir-Umar.

The statement read: “The 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.

READ ALSO: NANS shelves planned protest against PenCom DG, Dahir-Umar, gives reasons

“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 travel when most airports were shut down globally.

“More so, official foreign trips require strict documentation, including air tickets, stamped passport pages, and evidence of the 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 estacodes. 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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