The Chairman of Delta State Bureau for Pensions, Sir Edwin Ogidi-Gbegbaje has said government was after pensions’ scammers who misled innocent citizens especially unsuspecting pensioners and their family members.
Ogidi-Gbegbaje who was flanked by directors of the board, disclosed this on Wednesday August 21, 2024, when members of Indigenous Correspondents’ Chapel (ICC) of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Asaba, the state capital.
He warned that those responsible for defrauding pensioners of their hard earned resources, would soon have their day and urged them to, as a matter of urgency, turn a new leaf as the Bureau under his watch has zero tolerance for corruption and unscrupulous elements.
He ruled out compromise while management and staff are doing their work, saying no staff is allowed to demand for tips from retirees.
He disclosed that recently, the activity of a scammer whose name he gave as James Onoja Pen, with phone number 07070764813, was brought to his notice who demanded the sum of N45, 000 to facilitate the payment for a retiree.
When the number was placed on True Caller, it showed James Onoja Fraud.
Hear him: “It may have happened in the past but not now. Somebody came here in respect of pension for his late mother and he said he got a phone call from somebody who got the information of the late mother very correctly but now said he should part with N45, 000 to get the money out quickly.
“I have collected the name of the person who made that phone call, I will strongly advise and warn that anybody who accepts such request to give gratification to anybody for the processing or the payments for entitlement, does so at his/her own risk.
“We do not solicit or demand for payments in the processing of pension benefits. If there is anybody who is doing so, I want to plead, let that person be exposed.
“Because if I get reliable information on those persons or person who are doing that, such person or persons will face the law. I will not tolerate that and it will not be encouraged.
“And anybody who is found wanting doing that, will face dire consequences. That is my position on it”, the forthright bureau chairman declared.
He denied awareness of any cartel in the board involved in the scamming of pensioners, “that person is not our staff”.
He said the Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori-led administration holds pensioners so dear to his heart and would do anything humanly possible to ameliorate their plights.
