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Tag: Abdulrasheed Maina

  • Maina pension loot

    Maina pension loot

    • Forfeiture of 20 properties is good to discourage people who might want to toe similar path

    The Abdulrasheed Maina saga has become akin to a tragic-comedy, with the recent order of the Federal High Court for the final forfeiture of at least 20 properties, linked to the convicted former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT). Maina, who while at the helm of affairs, had projected himself as an innocent public servant who was appointed to stem fraud in the pension sector and who had saved the Federal Government billions of naira, was actually the termite that was eating the woods, earmarked for a reformed pension structure.

    A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja presided over by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik made the order of forfeiture upon reaching the conclusion that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the named properties located across the country were acquired with proceeds of crime. Maina was in 2021 sentenced to 61 years’ imprisonment, to run concurrently for eight years, for money laundering and other related offences. He was ordered to forfeit several sums, traced to him, which he could not account for.

    Justice Abdulmalik held that the “various individuals who responded to an earlier interim forfeiture order, requiring interested parties to show cause why the properties should not be permanently forfeited, failed to establish their ownership of the affected properties with credible evidence.” The court left out three out of the 23 listed properties which could not be linked to the proceeds of crime. Maina’s wife and some persons who claimed to be relatives, had tried in vain to lay claim to the forfeited properties.   

    When the bubble burst, we recall that Maina was given official protection by some fraudulent government officials, while the EFCC was projected as persecuting instead of prosecuting him. There were claims that he travelled with police escort to prevent arrest by the EFCC. When the heat became too much, he ran out of the country, allegedly with the help of high-ranking government officials. There were stories that he used diplomatic cover to travel, while he maintained that he was being prosecuted for saving the country from buccaneers scamming the pension fund.  

    Read Also: Court okays final forfeiture of ex-pension reform boss, Maina’s 20 properties

    When he was apprehended, he pretended to be sick, and he tried all manner of shenanigan to frustrate his trial, but the prosecution and the courts were steadfast, and eventually the case was concluded and judgment delivered. His case, we hope, will serve as a lesson to those entrusted with public office, and who are tempted to abuse same, while hoping that they can pool wool over the eyes of anti-graft agencies and other Nigerians. As in Maina’s case, a day will come when the bubble will

    burst, and the façade cleared.

    We commend the tenacity of the EFCC and their prosecution team for the effort to recover what was fraudulently taken from the common treasury of Nigeria. While stealing of any public fund is condemnable, the tragic consequences of stealing pension funds, meant for the weak and vulnerable, makes it the more disheartening. While Maina was busy buying properties with the stolen pension funds, old men and women, who are unable to buy food and medicine, may have died from hunger and diseases because of the non-payment of their pensions.

    Sadly, public officials are encouraged to steal because of the societal tolerance of such actions. To complicate simple cases of stealing, ethnicity and religion are brewed into the mix, and where care is not taken, those who bear the brunt of the criminal acts complained of, take up placards to defend their tormentor. We wish that those who falsely claimed to own the forfeited properties, could be made to face the consequences of lying on oath, and seeking to obstruct the course of justice.

  • The anti-climax of Abdulrasheed Maina’s arrest

    This past week, precisely on Monday, September 30, Abdulrasheed Maina, the dismissed and disgraced former Chairman, Presidential Task Team on Pension Matters, was arrested in Abuja. This is the same Maina of “Mainagate” scandal, one of the biggest scandals ever recorded in a country and an era in which scandals, big and small, have become the stuff of everyday life. Maina had been first accused in 2012 of conspiring with others to steal billions of naira from public pension funds that he had, ironically, been appointed to reform. He stoutly denied all the charges levelled against him. But when he and some of his co-accused like former Head of Service, Stephen Oronsaye, were to be arraigned in court for trial, Maina did not show up because he had absconded. For this, he was both dismissed from service and declared a wanted criminal on the run from justice.

    All this took place during the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan and the reign of the PDP: Maina and his fellow looters made away with billions of naira of public pension funds and he disappeared with the loot. But then in 2017, in the new presidency of Buhari and the reign of the APC, we exit from past tense and enter into present tense: Maina suddenly reappears completely “rehabilitated” and is reappointed and promoted with a position within the presidency itself. He is still a wanted man, a felon on the run from justice, but he is reabsorbed into the same federal administration from which he had absconded. A massive expression of public outrage erupts, perhaps the loudest and angriest of public outrages during the still unfolding presidency of Buhari. As a result, Maina is again dismissed from service but mysteriously, he is not arrested but allowed to evade arrest and vanish into thin air. That was the climax of the “Mainagate” saga; his arrest this week, with all the bravado with which it was announced, is a mere anti-climax to what has happened before and is likely to happen in the future. This point pertaining to the connection between climax and anti-climax is at the heart of what I wish to explore in this piece.

    Climax is the big moment in the unfolding of an experience; after that, everything else is anti-climax. The terms are at their most familiar in sex and dramatic form, orgasm being the climactic moment in the experience of sex and the turning point in the fortunes or the misfortunes of the hero the climax in dramatic plot. But the terms also are used in a wider frame of reference that relates to all of social life. In politics, climaxes occur at the moment when a political career reaches its highest point after which everything else is an anti-climax from which the politician can look back in satisfaction or regret at the climactic moment in his or her career. If the climax was/is good, the politician, the hero, the lover hopes that the anti-climax will not be too bad. But if the climax was/is catastrophic, the hope is that the anti-climax will be different.

    But what of serial climaxes and anti-climaxes? What if, in the sexual act, you have not one but several orgasms, several climaxes? And what if, in the course of your working life, you experience what seems to be many climaxes and anti-climaxes? That possibility exists, but it is outside the purview of the current discussion of “Mainagate”. In that event, the climax incontestably took place in 2017 when massive public outrage forced the administration, the presidency itself, to sack Maina again and force him to flee from justice; his arrest this week and the trial to which he will be subjected are nothing but a composite anti-climax. That is the essential argument that I am making in this piece.

    Does anyone think or hope that Maina’s trial will be speedy and just? That the funds looted by him and his co-looters will be returned in full or partially? On the contrary, isn’t it the case that most people reading this piece expect that Maina’s trial will take years and may never be concluded, much in the same way in which thousands of other such cases remain unfinished in our law courts? Isn’t that what happened with Dasuki and “Dasukigate”? And with James Ibori, who evaded a completed trial in Nigeria but was jailed and purged of some stolen loot in the U.K.? In his case, you could say that if he hadn’t been tried and convicted in the U.K., the “climax” would have happened and stopped when the sensational scale of his looting was announced. Permit me to express this general point concretely: in Nigeria, the climax occurs only with the bravado of the announcement of either the crime itself and/or arrest for the crime; afterwards, everything else that transpires is an anti-climax, with the interest, principally of the government but also of the public, shifting to another new case or breaking news of a collection of new cases.

    Maina’s case is very helpful in providing us with a graphic illustration of why everything that followed the climax of his “rehabilitation” by the presidency in 2017 has been and is likely to continue to be a mere anti-climax. This is because the two the cabinet-level minsters implicated in reabsorbing Maina into an administration from which he had been dismissed were Abdulrahman Danbazzau, Minister of the Interior and Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. It takes one’s breath away: the Minister responsible for security in every part of the country’s homeland interiority and the Minister responsible for seeking out, arresting and prosecuting all criminals, especially those fleeing from justice, they are the members of Buhari’s cabinet that colluded in the reabsorption of Maina into the federal civil service in 2017. Danbazzau is no longer Minster of the Interior, but Malami is still the AGF and he has the overall responsibility for Maina’s prosecution.

    I do admit it: the barely controlled anger, the bitterness with which I am writing this piece seems utterly helpless and disempowered. After all, what did I do, what did anyone of us do when, in 2017, we discovered that Danbazzau and Malami, together with other key figures in the presidency, had been behind Maina’s “rehabilitation”? What did we do then when no member of the administration – and certainly not Buhari himself – offered any explanations and no apologies for having taken Maina back into the presidency and thereafter allowed him to escape when the outrage was exposed? Indeed, Malami admitted to a Committee of the Senate that while Maina was in flight from justice he, Malami, had been in contact with the fellow in Dubai! Beyond the expression of mild reproach, Malami got no censure, and certainly no impeachment inquiry from that Senate Committee. In all this we did nothing beyond the sort of thing I seem to be doing in this piece – which is to express futile anger and bitterness at the apparent refusal of moral responsibility and legal accountability by the Buhari administration. After all, it is impossible to have meaningful and productive conversation and relations with a government from whom you expect and will never get moral and legal accountability and responsibility.

    But this is the crux of the matter! The Buhari administration in particular and the APC in general still want to be perceived as ethically and legally accountable. This is quite different from the PDP, especially in about the last ten years of its sixteen-year rule when the party and virtually all its administrations, federal and state, were blatantly and cynically contemptuous of being held responsible and accountable to anyone, the nation and the people, most especially the most marginalized and excluded majority. The APC has not (yet) reached that stage and Buhari especially still finds his reputation for moral sternness and spartan discipline very serviceable. He has done his utmost best to show that with the probable exception of only Sani Abacha, he is the least accountable and responsive to ethical imperatives among all our executive heads of state, past and present. Even as his war on corruption is relentlessly undermined and discredited by extremely corrupt practices going unpunished in the presidency itself, he is as clamorous as ever on the claim that he is achieving results that no previous administration had ever recorded in the fight against corruption.

    Unfortunately for the President and this claim, we have the phenomenon of the climax and the anti-climax that I have discussed in this piece to use as our benchmark. Beyond “Mainagate”, beyond floodgates of looters and how so consistently and easily they get away with the looting and the loot, the phenomenon of the brash climax that ends with an unremarkable anti-climax is a perpetual feature of neocolonialism in our continent and many other parts of the developing world. Projects, promises and initiatives are announced with resounding fanfare and they climax at, and with the announcement; from that climactic moment all further actions and expenditures on the given project are resoundingly anti-climactic in their mediocrity. With special reference to Abubakar Malami, when it comes to delivery of results, he may well turn out to be the most inconsequential and mediocre AGF we have ever had. I take no satisfaction in making this tentative prediction; rather, I make it because Malami has been the most vociferous AGF we have ever had in the war against corruption. Now, he has Maina back in custody; let him show that the announcement of the fugitive’s capture will not be underwhelmed by the no-show anti-climax of his trial.

    “Third Term” Denials

    It is remarkable, isn’t it, that at the time when the moral credibility and political accountability of the Buhari administration are at their lowest level, rumours should start erupting that the President has secret plans to try to go for a third, clearly illegal and unconstitutional third term in office. On the principle that there is no smoke without a fire and pregnancy will always be carried to term, it is safe to say that the strong denials coming from Aso Rock mean little now – that is until the time is ripe enough for us to tell for sure one way or another. Remember a fellow called OBJ? Remember how vigorously he and his surrogates denied that he was involved in a third-term bid? Remember also that it was precisely at the point in his presidency when it was at its least accountable and responsive to popular, democratic aspirations of the generality of Nigerians that OBJ launched his third-term bid?

    If we apply the metaphor of the climax and the anti-climax that we have explored in the main piece for this week’s column, we will find that OBJ’s third-term bid came at the anti-climactic stage of his presidency when, to both the political elite and the electorate, he was already regarded as a man living on borrowed time. But willfully or blindly, OBJ couldn’t see this. He continued to think of himself as God’s gift to Nigeria and Africa, completely shielded from the widely held opinion that his time as ruler was nearly up. Especially, Obasanjo at that stage thought that his standing in the international arena was so high that it could provide cover against his domestic opponents and even the rejection of the Nigerian populace itself.

    I raise these points for the consideration of the President and his backers. Unfortunately for them and for Nigeria too, the President’s performance at the General Assembly of the U.N. last week was considerably less than stellar. I raise this issue also because I wish to remind Nigerians that it was not the opposition of the political parties that in the end defeated OBJ’s third-term bid; it was popular, nationwide plurality that accomplished the task. Buhari’s case is made even more complicated by this fact: unlike OBJ who did not rule with and through a cabal, everyone knows, from within the APC itself, that an unconstitutional Buhari third-term bid is power grab by the cabal with and through which Buhari rules. What am I saying? Even from within the innermost recesses of Aso Rock, the First Lady knows, too, that a third term bid for her husband is power grab by the cabal. Which novelist was it who said may we live in interesting times?!

    • Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu    

  • Arrested Maina likely for trial over N2b contract

    AFTER a four-year manhunt, fugitive former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. AbdulRasheed Maina, has been arrested.

    He was picked up by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) at a hotel in Abuja after he sneaked into the country from his Dubai, United Arab Emirates base, it was learnt last night.

    Sources hinted that the DSS might hand him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for trial over a questionable N2billion biometrics contract.

    Explaining how he was arrested, they said the DSS acted on intelligence alert which led to Maina’s arrest.

    The source said: “Following inter-agency collaboration, intelligence report indicated that Maina had sneaked into the country from Dubai.

    “He was trailed to an Abuja hotel where he was arrested after operatives outwitted those who tried to ferry him away in a bullet-proof vehicle.

    “He is currently being quizzed. He is likely to be handed over to the EFCC for trial. He has a pending case since 2015.”

    Maina was on July 21, 2015 charged alongside Oronsaye, Osarenkhoe Afe and Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited before a Federal High Court on a 24-count charge bordering on procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretense.

    Although some godfathers tried to smuggle him into the country and attempted to reinstate him to office, the process backfired.

    The EFCC in 2017, declared Maina wanted, following his refusal to honour the commission’s invitations.

    Read Also: Maina: EFCC vows to appeal court judgement

    But in his bid to evade the long arm of the law, Maina, on September 5, 2018, in a suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/957/2918, asked the court to decide whether the Commission can lawfully exercise powers of declaring him wanted, either on its official website or any other media platform, or “harass him.”

    Justice Folasade Giwa Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court restrained the anti- graft commission from declaring Maina wanted.

    She also gave an order of perpetual injunction, restraining the EFCC and its affiliates or related bodies from further declaring Maina wanted in relation to the issue of the pension scam.

    The EFCC said the judgment must not be allowed to stand and filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal.

    Spokesman for DSS, Dr. Peter Afunaya, did not respond to a message sent to him by our correspondent.

  • Why I met Maina in Dubai – Malami

    Why I met Maina in Dubai – Malami

    Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said he had no regrets meeting with the fugitive former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pensions, Abdulrasheed Maina, in Dubai.

    “If hundreds of Mainas believe that they have information to offer as far at the protection of the national interest is concerned, I will meet them and will do so again,” Malami said in his first public interview in the current edition of The Interview magazine.

    After a spell in exile, Maina who has been accused of stealing N2billion public pension, returned to Nigeria and was re-absorbed into service.

    In the interview, Malami said his meeting was in pursuit of the national interest. “It boils down to whether I have indeed acted or I have not acted,” he said.

    Malami said President Muhammadu Buhari came to be aware of his meeting with Maina much later, “out of a desire to see for his (Buhari’s) directives relating to its application for the purpose of blocking leakages associated with the looting of pension funds.”

    The MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview, Azu Ishiekwene, described Malami’s interview as “the first real window into the mind of a man who has been central to one of the most vexatious public issues in recent times.”

  • Finance ministry denies paying Maina salary after disengagement

    Finance ministry denies paying Maina salary after disengagement

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Thursday said the former Chairman, Pension Reform Task Force, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, did not receive salary from government after his disengagement.

    Adeosun said this in Abuja when she appeared before members of House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee investigating the disappearance, re-appearance, re-instatement and promotion of Maina.

    She said that from the records of the ministry, there was no trace of any payment of salary to Maina after he was disengaged from service in 2013.

    “We have looked very well and we have no biometrics of Maina, so there is no way he could have received salaries,” Adeosun said.

    In his submission, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, said that Maina was last paid salary in February, 2013.

    According to Idris, from March, he was removed from the payroll so I don’t know where he was receiving the salary.

    “If there was any payment of salary to Maina, there should be payslips and an account the payments were made; so, let whoever made the claim tender them to support the claim,” Idris said.

    Counsel to Maina, Mr Muhammadu Kuta, had while before the committee on Nov. 23 claimed that his client received salary up to October, 2017.

    According to Kuta, assignments were still being given to him to execute for the Federal Government even as at last month and he was getting his salary.

    NAN

  • Ijaw youths urge Buhari to probe Maina’s claims

    Ijaw youths urge Buhari to probe Maina’s claims

    Ijaw youths on Wednesday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to establish a national judicial commission of inquiry to probe all the allegations made by the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina.

    The youths under the auspices of the Eric Omare-led Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, said the commission to be headed by a retired judge should among other things determine the veracity or otherwise of Maina’s allegations including the amount of money recovered so far and how it was expended.

    Omare, in a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, argued that such commission had become imperative following Maina’s allegations linking top presidential aides to the fraud.

    He said the administration which is anchored on the war against corruption, should be bothered that Maina accused top aides of President Buhari of diverting recovered loots.

    Insisting that the allegations should not be swept under the carpet, Omare said Maina had succeeded in creating an impression that pension fraudsters were also part of Buhari’s government.

    He said: “The IYC is of the view that these allegations are grave, serious and should not be swept under the carpet under any circumstances. It seems from the allegations by Maina that top officials of the Buhari administration are looting recovered stolen funds with lorry on a daily basis.

    “In order for the federal government to justify its anti-corruption crusade, it must get to the root of the allegations. Hence, the IYC is of the view that a National Judicial Commission of Inquiry to be headed by a retired judge with impeccable character be set up.”

    Omare further called on the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to step aside in the interest of the anti-graft war following his alleged involvement in the reinstatement of Maina.

    He said: “Mr. Malami cannot continue to function as the Chief Law Officer of Nigeria in the midst of the allegations of complicity in the controversial reinstatement of Maina and the possible conversion or looting of recovered loots.

    “The only way the anti-corruption crusade of the present administration can be taken serious is for Mr. Malami to step aside like the former Secretary to Government of the Federation while investigations are ongoing and all those involved in the looting of recovered funds brought to justice.”

    END.

  • Maina: EFCC denies sharing 222 recovered pension properties

    Maina: EFCC denies sharing 222 recovered pension properties

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has denied allegations that 222 Pension Properties recovered from pension thieves had been shared under its watch.

    Senator Emmanuel Paulker, chairman of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee investigating the controversial reinstatement of wanted Abdulrasheed Maina, had on Thursday alleged that 222 houses recovered by Maina task force had been shared.

    But the anti-graft agency in a statement, by its spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren said that the supposed 222 pension properties didn’t exist and the recovered assets were intact.

    Read Also: Reps seek probe of Maina’s reinstatement

    He said, “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to comments attributed to the Chairman of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee investigating the controversial reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, Senator Emmanuel Paulker, alleging that officials of the Commission had shared 222 properties which Maina’s Panel seized from pension fund thieves”.

    “This sweeping allegation, coming from a Senate Committee is disturbing more so as no attempt was made to verify the information from the Commission. The EFCC was never invited by the Committee and given the opportunity to educate it on the status of assets seized from suspected pension thieves; yet the Committee was comfortable to scandalize the EFCC with the public disclosure of unverified claims by unknown interests”.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, there are no 222 properties anywhere that were shared by anybody. The EFCC did not receive a single property from Abdulrasheed Maina”.

    “All the pension fraud assets that are in the recovered assets inventory of the Commission were products of independent investigation by the EFCC, for which Maina and his cohorts had no clues. If Maina or any government official witnessed the sharing of any recovered pension assets by any official of the EFCC, they should be willing to name the official, the assets involved; when and where the ‘sharing’ took place”.

    “As far as the EFCC is concerned, there is no controversy regarding the status of assets recovered from suspected pension thieves. The record of all the recovered assets from both the Police Pension and the Pension Office of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation as well as their current status are intact, and have been communicated to the relevant organs of government”.

    “However, in view of the consistent display of public ignorance about the profile of recovered assets by even those who should know, it is important to state that it is impossible for anybody to share a property that is subject of interim forfeiture by court. Of all the properties seized from pension fraud suspects, it is only properties that are linked to John Yusuf, who was convicted under a plea bargain arrangement that had been forfeited permanently and handed to government”.

    “All the others, with the exception of Brifina Hotel, are subject of interim forfeiture. And the cases are ongoing in courts”.

  • I did not order reinstatement, promotion of Maina – AGF 

    I did not order reinstatement, promotion of Maina – AGF 

    Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami has denied giving directives for the reinstatement of former Chairman of Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina back into the Federal Civil Service.

    Maina was sacked by the Federal Civil Service Commission for absconding from his duty post.

    Malami, Thursday at the Aliyu Madaki-led House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigative hearing on the disappearance, reinstatement and promotion of Maina said the letter of reinstatement did not emanate from his office because as at 5th October, 2017, Maina’s reinstatement matter was ‘work in progress’ that has not been completed.

    He however said the consideration being given to Maina’s request for reinstatement was borne out of national interest that overrides individual interests

    The Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau also washed his hands off the reinstatement saying the office of the Minister did not write any letter to that effect, since it was an establishment rather than policy matter which he oversees.

    Dambazzau said, the Permanent Secretary Abubakar Magaji, who is on sick leave would be in the best position to address the issue.

    Similarly, the   Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Winifred Eyo-Ita said she did not direct the Ministry of Interior to act on the reinstatement following a letter from the AGF requesting the reinstatement.

    She said she withheld the letter that was forwarded to her desk by the FCSC in order to make further clarification because the action was against the anti-corruption stance of the government.

    According to her, she formally questioned the proprietary of the Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry, Magaji for acting on the AGF letter without directives from the office of the HoCSF.

    The acting Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Joseph Oluremi said his Commission acted on the reinstatement based on the letter from the AGF, who made it clear that legal process concerning the issue were carefully examined.

    He also said it was not the duty of a Ministry to reinstate any official.

    Both Eyo-Ita and Oluremi said being the chief Legal officer of rhe country, they have no basis to question the AGF notwithstanding that they are aware of the statutory responsibilities of their respective offices.

    Malami, who disclosed that a multi – sectoral pension fraud syndicate is fleecing the country of N3.7b monthly, in his presentation said he got clearance from relevant security agencies and the National Security Adviser, Gen. Babagana  Monguno before his meeting that was arranged through a third party with Maina in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE) where he was availed further information on recovery drive and individuals involved.

    Malami absolved himself of the reinstatement of Maina saying he delegated the examination of the request by Maina’s lawyers for reinstatement to one of his subordinates.

    The AGF said his minutes to correspondences between himself and the line officer in charge of the matter were about the need for the officer to present stronger evidence-based argument for the reinstatement.

    Saying that he was embarrassed by media reports that he was compromised about the reinstatement issue, Malami said, “As at 5th October, 2017, the issue of Maina was still work in progress, I did not give any directive that Maina be reinstated.

    “The issue of reinstatement of Maina was done with no strings attached, based on court processes and the fact that none of the parties exercised their rights of appeal, I acted in the best interest of Nigeria, not on any individual’s interest

    “The legal opinion of the AGF was anchored on my oath of office and the responsibility of the office”.

    He said based on the correspondences between himself and the line officer and his minutes on the correspondences, “The letter of reinstatement of Maina couldn’t have emanated from my office.

    “That letter of 21 Feb, when I was confronted with that letter by the Senate, it didn’t ring a bell at all in my memory. What I did was going back to the office to call for the file. And then arising from the file, I could confirm that there was a letter from the Miana’s lawyer.

    “I could confirm that I treated that letter in February and directed the line officer to treat it. I could confirm that the line officer revert back to a memo expressing an opinion with a draft letter, suggesting that I should direct that Maina should be reinstated.

    “I could confirm that my mind was agitated over the content and the conclusion of that letter and I could confirm that I minuted on the on the letter of April that “develop further opinion to convince me that the content and conclusion of the judgement in support of the Maina’s lawyer reasonably suggests a conclusion for a consequential effect to the judgment.

    “I could confirm that there was no further correspondence from the line office upto sometimes in May when the line officer now came up with additional memo and in that memo tried to justify the conclusion that I could direct for the reinstatement of Miana.

    “And I could equally that in that memo; reference was made to court process relating to Indutrial court in which Maina filed an action against the federal government.

    “And I could confirm as well that I minuted on that memo directing the officer to make available copies of those court processes that were not made available in support of the memo and I could confirm there was no further correspondence in that regard until sometimes in October precisely on the 5th day of October when the line officer came up with a clean-up copy of the letter seeking my endorsement. In that letter, he was making reference to the previous correspondence.

    “And when the correspondence and processes could not ring bell in my memory until I read the letter with the hope to reduce the situation, it was the point at which the whole media issue surrounding the matter now evolved. So, what I am saying in essence, my position is as far as Maina’s request for reinstatement was concerned, it was indeed, a work in progress as at the fifth day of October, 2017”.

    He also said pension fraud was beyond Maina, stating that a syndicate that cut across all sectors, including serving and retired public officers, including members of the National Assembly was involved in the cornering N3.7b monthly from pension funds.

    He said it was discovered that over 116,000 ghost workers responsible for N829m monthly spread across 29 bank accounts have been uncovered.

    He disclosed that his office has commenced investigation on the pension fraud in some key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA).

    “Maina was part of the syndicate until things fell apart between them, the decision I took was not about Maina but in the larger interest of Nigerians,” he added.

    On his part, Maina’s counsel, Muhammed Katu said there was no need for the hearing since  the House has already adjudged Maina guilty having asked security agencies to arrest and prosecute him in its resolution.

    He however said Maina is willing to attend the hearing and she’d light on the issue but is seeking protection of the House that security agencies would be prevailed upon not to arrest or harass him.

    He said Maina was never dismissed because those that carried out the purported dismissal lacked the authority to do it, adding that Maina went on exile because his life was in danger.

    He said Maina was still in service and working for the government, and that 23 files were recently referred to him as Acting Director.

    While displaying the original copy of the letter, Katu said Maina was reinstated through a letter  signed by Dr. R.K Attahiru of the Department of Human Resources in the Interior Ministry.

    The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris said Maina is still on its wanted list and the International Police has been placed on red alert.

    Deputy Inspector Gemwral of Police (DIG), Valentine Tochukwu, who represented the IGP, said there was no record of any police officer attached to Maina.

    He also said Police authority has no details of pension fraud in the service.

    In same vein, Independent Corrupt Practice and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) acting Chai an Abdulahi Bako also said the Commission has no role on the disappearance or reinstatement of Maina.

    The Committee said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) must appear before it on the next adjourned date of 30th November, 2017.

  • Reps Begin Probe of Maina’s disappearance, appearance re-instatement

    Reps Begin Probe of Maina’s disappearance, appearance re-instatement

    Hearing on Abdulrasheed Maina’s Disappearance, Appearance re-instatement and Promotion commences with the testimony of the Head of Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo- Ita who is speaking under oath.

    Present at the hearing are: the Minister of Interior Abdulraman Dambazzau, Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Joseph Akande, the Attorney- General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, the Solicitor General of the Federation, Dayo Apata, DIG Valentine ( Rep IG Ibrahim Idris and Maina’s Counsel Mohammed Kato

    The investigation by the ad hoc committee, headed by Hon. Alyu Madaki ( APC Kano) is meant to last for two days.

    The Head of Service and the Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Joseph Akande have given their own testimony under oath. Presently testifying is the Minister of Interior Abdulrahman Dambazzau,

    Details later..

    Read Also: Pension ‘thieves’ framing me – Maina

  • I did not buy any house from Maina – Falana

    I did not buy any house from Maina – Falana

    Activist lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has said that he did not buy any house from the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina.

    He said on Tuesday in Lagos that there was no truth in the claims by Maina that he bought a PRTT recovered property from Maina.

    The senior lawyer challenged Maina to produce the details of the house that he purportedly bought from him. “Which house? Where is it located? Is it in Lagos or Abuja,” he asked.

    Maina, through his lawyer, Sani Katu, had in a statement issued in Kaduna on Monday alleged that the senior lawyer was a beneficiary of a recovered asset which was sold to him for N1 billion.

    According to him, “it was because the lawyer was a beneficiary of the recovered assets that he has resorted to attacking him, fearing that he would be exposed.

    He said, “during the assignment of the Maina Led Pension Reform Task Force Team, it recovered assets and funds worth N1.6trillion. Amongst the real Estates recovered from pension thieves is a Maitama mansion worth N1billion situated at No 42 Gana Street, Maitama Abuja.

    Recently, the lawyer has been vociferous in asking for Maina’s arrest and crucifixion, because he is afraid that Maina will expose him as a party to the stealing of what Maina Team recovered assets.

    He alleged that when eyebrows were raised on the transaction, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), then “arranged a fake scenario that one Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar, owner of AA Oil, was said to have sold the mansion to Falana at N1billion.”

    But Falana, in his reaction to the issue on Tuesday contended that he did not buy any house from him, “does not know Maina and has never met him before.

    “Let him give details of the house. I have never met him or had any dealings with him before. He is engaging in the reckless blackmail because I criticized the careless handling of his matter by the federal government,” he maintained.

    How Oronsaye, Maina diverted pension funds, by EFCC
    •Maina

    Falana contended that some people in government must have conspired and prodded Maina to make the allegation in order to disparage his person because he advised President Muhammadu Buhari to act fast in imposing appropriate sanctions on government officials who allegedly conspired to bring back the former Chairman of the defunct PRTT back to the country and got the fugitive reinstated into the public service with promotion.

    Falana said he gave the advice in order to save the Buhari administration’s anti-corruption policy, whose credibility he alleged had been eroded by the Federal Government’s handling of the Maina scandal so far.

    To buttress his position, he recalled that at a time the State Security Services (SSS) declared Maina wanted and were looking for him, Maina was moving about with SSS officials assigned to provide him with security.

    Maina was sacked in 2013 after he was declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over corruption allegations involving about N2billion pension fund.

    Falana had in a statement, titled ‘President Buhari should act with dispatch on Mainagate’, on Sunday stated that the officials who aided Maina back to the country and paid the fugitive arrears of salaries and allowances totaling N22m “deliberately set out to subvert the anti-corruption policy of the Buhari administration”, adding, ““time is certainly not on the side of President Buhari!”

    He had asked the Buhari administration to sanction all officials who “conspired to expose the administration and the nation to such avoidable shame,” emphasizing that sanctions imposed on them by the President would make or break the administration’s “fight against corruption and impunity.”

    He noted that though the Federal Government has promised not to sweep the Mainagate under the carpet, the handling of the monumental scandal eroded the credibility of the anti-corruption crusade of the Buhari administration.

    “Therefore, the sanctions which the Federal Government will mete out to all the officials who conspired to expose the administration and the nation to such avoidable shame will make or mar (sic) the fight against corruption and impunity which is the cornerstone of the domestic and foreign policy thrust of the administration,” he stated.