Leading Reporters

The Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) Aisha Dahir-Umar received millions of dollars in estacode for foreign trips even during the Covid-19 lockdown, documents obtained have shown.

The documents further revealed that the PENCOM boss received millions of dollars from 2019 when she was an acting Director General of PENCOM and continued in 2020 when she was confirmed as the substantive DG.

She received the funds through a Nigeria Uniform Bank Account Number, 20165261012 domiciled with the GTB, used by government officials for internal purposes.

For instance in 2019, specifically on January 3rd, she was paid $1,800,480 in estacode on a Washington DC trip. No specific reason was attached to the trip, which has a transaction reference number 269574350 with Batch number 6309.

Also, in another transaction reference No 366902094 with Batch No 815; Dahir-Umar collected N4,965,327 on 9/01/2020 on airfare to Mauritius for the fourth Pension Fund Africa Conference. On that trip, she collected $259,200.

In the document SaharaReporters obtained, Dahir-Umar pocketed N4,243,116 on 13/03/2020 on airfare to attend Reinventing HR Summit in London and collected an additional N3,077,648 in estacode.

SaharaReporters had reported on January 1, 2023, that the Centre for Public Accountability (CPA) petitioned the anti-graft agency Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), demanding an immediate probe of the PENCOM DG, Aisha Dahir-Umar.

Although the CPA Executive Director, Olufemi Lawson, commended the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), on its effort to probe Dahir-Umar, SaharaReporters reported in December 2022 that the group had expressed dismay over alleged high-level corruption in PENCOM under Dahir-Umar, in a petition to the EFCC.

It had been reported that the group in the petition signed by Lawson, said that during the COVID-19 global pandemic, Dahir-Umar was allegedly paid tens of thousands of foreign currencies for courses she never attended.

The CPA’s earlier petition read, “It is on this basis that we write this petition to your commission for a thorough investigation, into several acts of corruption, particularly as related, into several funds received by Aisha Dahiru Umar, from PENCOM for foreign trips and courses that she never attended.

“In recent times, it has become a practice for office holders to swindle public funds under the guise of foreign courses but subsequently divert the same into private pockets.

“We hope to also intimate you, of the fact that after collecting those funds, Aisha Dahiru Umar, hides in her Abuja residence or outside Abuja for a few days and returns to work pocketing Tens of millions of Naira and several sums of foreign currency.

“This act of corruption was also repeated a few weeks/months ago as she was paid over Forty million Naira, and after being questioned by a whistleblower, with a threat to expose her, she quickly returned about Twenty-Five million, out of the said amount.

“During the COVID-19 global pandemic, Aisha Dahiru Umar was paid Tens of thousands of foreign currencies, for courses she never attended.

“We urge the EFCC to carry out an audit of payments made to her for foreign courses, requesting attendance certificates, air tickets, and boarding passes as proof of attendance.

“This will help to identify if the attached bank statements and payment advices correspond, which we believe will uncover the massive fraud and gross abuse of office with such impunity.

“PENCOM had paid about N1 billion into her various bank accounts between 2015 and till date which we believed your commission can verify via the BVN system.

“During her tenure as acting DG, from the proceeds of such massive fraud, she purchased a house worth hundreds of millions of Naira located at plot 309, No.20 Adamu Aliero Crescent Guzape Abuja. Also from the travel fraud and other corrupt activities at PENCOM, She bought an N700 million property at No. 53 Nelson Mandela, Asokoro, Abuja.

“She has also secretly acquired several assets with family members fronting for her including Millions of Naira paid into accounts of family members. She also has allocated several assets of the commission including cars and uses commission staff to service houses of her relatives and has defrauded the commission of Millions of Naira for the monthly procurement of diesel fuel for two houses belonging to her children.

“A forensic audit of her expenses and the finances of PENCOM should be carried out to stop the looting in the public interest. This subject matter is not new to you and several Nigerians have repeatedly drawn your attention to this. We have decided to take up this challenge after you called for a petition through your social media account on Twitter.

“We, therefore, call on you to investigate this act, trace the money, and ensure that same is not channeled towards any purpose other than being returned to the commission.”

Sequel to the petition, Oluwafemi commended the ICPC for having commenced an investigation into the allegations against the PENCOM boss, saying that the anti-graft agency has shown greater commitment to exemplary service delivery to all its stakeholders.

He had said, “We commend the ICPC for swift action but it is also important that we inform them not to go to sleep over this as we expect that effort must be put in place to bring her to book for her corrupt practices.

“We understand that the woman (Aisha Dahir-Umar) in question has boasted to compromise everyone as she tried to infiltrate the CSO organization calling for her prosecution.”

Meanwhile, the group again called on the EFCC to as a matter of urgency investigate the petition written and submitted to its office regarding allegations of corrupt practices levelled against Dahir-Umar

PenCom reacts to allegations its DG spent millions of dollars on estacodes 

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has described as outrageous falsehood and fiction allegations that its Director-General, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, was paid millions of dollars as estacode during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

The reaction of the commission followed online reports that it spent such a huge amount as Estacode in 2020, as well as further claims that there were documents showing how the monies were paid into her account.

This disclosure is contained in a statement issued by PenCom on Sunday, July 30, 2023, and can be seen on the commission’s official Twitter account.

PenCom said no government official could claim foreign travel allowances in 2020 when there was a global restriction on international travel and most airports were closed, forcing people to work from home and hold virtual meetings. 

The commission said all rates for estacode payments are standardized and foreign trips require strict documentation, “including air tickets, stamped passport pages and evidence of several days spent”. 

It stated that even if the PenCom boss were to spend 2 years outside the country non-stop, her estacode allowances would not be up to a million dollars. 

Allegation a fiction 

The statement from PenCom reads,

• ‘’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, fiction remains 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 s 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. 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 travels when most airports were shut down globally.’’