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PFA jittery over N115 pension asset with PenCom

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States failed to remit N3.bn in pension contributions

A Pensions Funds Administrator (PFA) First Guarantee Pension Limited (FGPL) is crossed with the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) over fear that its N115billion assets in the custody of the latter may be under threat.

Consequently, the firm has  petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene fast before things get awry.
Confirming this development, a director and major shareholder of FGPL Nze Chidi Duru appealed to Buhari to order an investigation and full audit of the National Pension Commission and First Guarantee Pension Limited.
In the petition which reads in part, Duru said: “FGPL has not had any Annual General Meeting (AGM) since the management of the Pension Fund Administrator was taken over by the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), saying that shareholders of FGPL are greatly concerned of the state of affairs of the company because “no audited reports and accounts of the firm have been rendered to the shareholders within the last five years during which PENCOM has maintained imperial dominance over the firm.”

Particularly worrisome to Duru is the fact that  “no dividends have been paid to shareholders in the last five years, despite the accumulation of funds in the account of the company. No taxes due to the federal and state governments have been paid within that period and no appropriate filings have been made at the Corporate Affairs Commission.  The company’s N115 billion in pension assets appears to not to be currently well managed by the Interim Management imposed by PENCOM and it is not right that PENCOM should continue to manage the company the way it has been doing in the last six years without reporting to shareholders who are the owners of the company.”

Duru said the petition was also sent to the National Security Adviser and the DSS and has vowed “to explore all lawful means to restrain PENCOM and its agents and proxies from further persecuting me.”
Contacted, spokesman for PenCom, Emeka Onuora said the matter is in court and as such would be subjudice.
He however said the Commission took over the FGPL management in 2011 over issues bordering on mismanagement.

 

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