The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mainagate

  • Malami, ‘Mainagate’ and Buhari’s integrity

    Malami, ‘Mainagate’ and Buhari’s integrity

    Integrity is President Buhari’s most priceless asset. This has unfortunately come under serious threat in recent times with macabre dance among arms of state security services and the embarrassing role of Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice in the unfolding ‘Mainagate’. The President has maintained a dignified silence. And if the public was expecting the president to use the big stick against members of his kitchen cabinet engaged in a turf war capable of denting his image, what they got was loud silence.

    Of course we are now very familiar with the president’s style. He keeps his head when others are losing theirs. It must also be conceded to the president that as a leader that has experienced pains of defeat and suffered pangs of sorrow following betrayal by those who swear by his name during the day and engage in palace coup in a night of long knives. He understands Nigeria and Nigerians.

    As a defeated ANPP presidential candidate in 2003 and 2007, his vice presidential candidates and party chairmen were the first to abandon him while he battled PDP election riggers in courts. As a victorious APC president-elect in 2015, Saraki, Dogara with the active support of Atiku Abubakar, their godfather who crawled back to PDP last week, traded off his victory to the opposition.

    As he valiantly battled inherited decayed infrastructure and economy in recession, those who brought the nation to its knees recommended devaluation of naira in an import-dependent economy, wrote-off his minister of finance as incompetent, and canvassed for a reconstitution of an economic team to tackle the economic crisis.  Suddenly, those we all know as lawyers and human right social crusaders were on television predicting a long-drawn recession while accusing Buhari of harming the banks with the implementation of a policy that hitherto allowed banks to hold on to government funds which they give back to government as loans with high interest rate.

    And perhaps because against predictions of prophets of doom, recession ended within a year and Treasury Single Account has liberated government from being held hostage by banks that sit on government funds which they give back to government as loans with interest, Buhari has come to believe his ‘suru-lere’ (virtue in waiting patiently without doing anything) can be a substitute for governance.

    I think Nigerians want their elected government to govern. They want the president to start by first putting his own house in order.

    First, most Nigerians have come to regard the minister of justice as an embarrassment to Buhari’s government. Junaid Mohammed, who holds no hostages, describes him as “Kano charge-and-bail lawyer’. He insinuated that Malami probably has a secret agenda for embarking on an alleged ‘trip to London for a secret meeting with a fugitive minister’ and for attempting ‘through some subterranean connection to quash the fine imposed on MTN by the government regulator, the National Communications Commission”.

    If there is one area where Junaid sees eye to eye with Buhari’s government, it is on Magu’s competence and integrity in prosecuting the president’s anti-corruption war. Of Magu, he says “I believe from my heart of heart that the Economic Financial and Crimes Commission (EFCC) is doing an excellent job”. Unfortunately, this is one organisation Malami and the DSS seems not to have confidence in.

    For instance, while testifying before Senator Emmanuel Paulker’s committee last week, Malami alleged “Nigerians were “blind folded” from getting answers to: What happened to the monies recovered from the syndicate?  What about the 270 properties comprising of real estate and motor vehicles one of which is a mansion worth N1 billion situated at No 42 Gang Street Maitama Abuja allegedly given to a senior lawyer meant to crave for his “buy in” in maximizing media hype aimed at distracting the attention at the public pension fraud?”

    Concluding he said “These properties are under the custody of the EFCC. The properties as we speak have been shared among top officials of the commission, friends and family members, including lawyers of the agency.”

    He made similar allegation before the Aliyu Madaki-led House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigative hearing on the disappearance, reinstatement and promotion of Maina.

    But denying all, EFCC has said “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”. And hitting Malami below the belt, it says “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.”

    Femi Falana (SAN), respected human right crusader has also accused Malami of mischief claiming Malami was trying to malign his name for “joining other well-meaning Nigerians in calling on President Mohammadu Buhari to sanction the members of his administration who had exposed the nation to ridicule”. ‘Contrary to Mr. Malami’s claim, I never bought any property from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)’, he insisted.

    While the president by his own inaction is providing ammunition to the opposition for the 2019 battle which they will likely lose on account of their baleful legacies even if Buhari contests on a wheelchair, there are however some begging questions that have to be answered before then. “The reinstatement of Maina’’ according to Malami “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”. How come the minister of justice was more interested in reinstating a wanted fugitive than how a wanted fugitive secured a court judgment?

    Malami claimed he got clearance from security agencies and National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno before his meeting that was arranged through a third party with Maina in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE) where he was availed of further information on recovery drive and individuals involved. Again borrowing from Junaid Mohammed’s probing questions: In what capacity did Malami undertake this trip? Did he at the end of the suspicious trip avail EFCC, an agency he supervises and other security agencies of his findings that “pension fraud was beyond Maina, adding that a syndicate that cuts across all sectors, including serving and retired public officers, including members of the National Assembly, was involved in cornering N3.7b monthly from pension funds.’

    If he got the information that “there were over 116,000 ghost workers responsible for N829m monthly spread across 29 bank accounts”, apparently from Maina the culprit now trying to play the victim, why did he not pass the information to the appropriate body equipped to investigate instead of directing “his office to begin investigation into the pension fraud in some key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA)”? And if as he said that ‘Maina was part of the syndicate until things fell apart between them’, how does his reinstatement become ‘the larger interest of Nigerians’?

    Both the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF) Winifred Eyo-Ita and the acting Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Joseph Oluremi confirmed citing the AGF letter requesting Maina to be reinstated, is Malami now the government? His actions seem to fuel the fears expressed by the president’s wife about those trying to hijack her husband’s government several months back.

  • Mainagate

    As long as things like this continue unabated, there will be no let to the increasingly vociferous cries about having our co- existence reworked.

    In reaction to a report by Elombah on Abdulrsheed Maina, I commented as follows on Saturday, 16 February, 2013 in a post on Ekitipanupo: “I have this strong suspicion that a good part of this so-called ‘stolen’ pension funds went into that stupendously expensive President Jonathan  2011 campaign. Or how could the police claim inability to capture a man they have  no less than 30 of their own men guiding round the clock?” As soon as the story broke, Elombah had reported as follows:

    Have no doubt about it, Alhaji Abdulra-sheed Maina, the current head of pensions, is beyond the reach of the Nigerian police. Even our senators don’t know what else to do about him. Man pass man! On January 28, 2013, Nigerians were shocked to learn that Yakubu Yusuf, the former head of Pensions, embezzled N23 billion and was fined N750,000, even after he had pleaded guilty. While the case of Yusufu was a rude awakening, Nigerians must prepare for a much bigger shock, at least ten times bigger than Yusuf’s meagre 23 billion naira. The case of Maina who succeeded him, is so mind burgling it makes Yusuf look like a petty thief. He is alleged to have stolen nothing less than N400 billion. He was neither arrested nor questioned by the EFCC’.

    In Nigeria, when you are sitting on N400 billion, you can thumb your nose at anybody. And as always happened then whenever Maina lined up to welcome President Jonathan at  the Abuja airport, he remained a front line celebrity who, even though already declared wanted by the Nigerian police, had a near battalion of  them guarding him round the clock. And why would the Nigerian police not play dumb? In Maina’s own words, big guns in the Nigerian police were daily raking in  N300 Million from the Police Pension fund but hardly ever spending a penny of it on pension.  Wrote Elombah further, “with such an inflammable liquid asset, Maina could burn down the nation. He could raise an army, order arms and fight Nigeria to standstill.” But he simply chose to buy everybody, and anybody that could prove difficult. His alleged heist was so humongous he could raise an army, order arms and fight Nigeria to a standstill. When the Senate issued an arrest warrant for him, the police which should execute the warrant by arresting him, did no such thing. It decided, instead, to declare him wanted.  Even at that, his houses were being guarded by scores of policemen. And only an Inspector-General of Police with two heads, could have approved that without orders from the highest levels of government.

    Not a penny of that heist has been retrieved from Maina as you read this.

    And that is why he has resurfaced as not only a huge problem and an embarrassment to the Buhari government but as an incomparable dent on Nigeria even though, as suggested by a presidential spokesperson, Maina could very well have been ferreted into the country by the yesterday men with whom he had shared billions with, knowing that elections are around the corner. As has become the case with that unfortunate state, there are even news he wants to become the Borno State governor.

    One glaring thing about the Maina fiasco is the downside of President Buhari handling the country’s security apparati almost solely in the hands of some fun loving, money grabbing individuals who, though very close to him, care nothing for his anti corruption war or what becomes of the legacy of such a committed and patriotic head of state who knows, and untiringly verbalises the fact that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria. While he loves, and protects these his people, they care nothing about him. Were they on the same page with this ascetic head of state, we would never have had any “grassgate” and other embarrassing incidents, nor would doubt about the president’s integrity, and seriousness about the anti- corruption war, become a sing song on the social media to the eternal chagrin of those of us who appreciate his genuineness, and incandescent incorruptibility.

    Or who of these top officials surrounding him, for whom he continues  to be serially flagellated, which senior security operative in this country,  could claim he doesn’t know that Maina has landed in “the estate of his forefathers” to continue as he wishes? As I never cease to ask in circumstances such as this, who but a northerner, in this country, would not have since been ferreted out even for half of what Maina is alleged to have stolen? Of all the officials mentioned in Maina’s serpentine, and ignominious return to the civil service, the only southerner of note mentioned is the Head of Service who the Minister of Interior was trying everything to make the fall guy. She was to have been thrown under the bus by these wicked and selfish characters. Haven’t we heard from the EFCC that not only are some of their sister agencies in cahoots with Maina, he has, in fact,  been escorted out of the country by security officials who, on one breath swear allegiance to this country but are extremely disloyal as they have become slaves to money and ethnicity. As long as things like this continue unabated, there will be no let to the increasingly vociferous cries about having our co- existence reworked.

    Those living in denial will easily turn round to claim I have reduced this serious moral fiasco to an ethnic thing but truth be told, that is what it is because, I know for a certainty that our taciturn Attorney-General Malami would never  have stuck his neck out for a non northerner, hiding Maina’s recall on court decisions which he could have simply appealed even if on orders from above, Attorney- General Adoke had decided to sleep on the country’s right of appeal on court decisions Maina must have purchased. It’s obvious from all we have read on this matter that it was driven by the Attorney-General, who I am waiting to see prove that this scam is in our national interest, as he claims, and the interior minister who must have edged on his ministry’s senior staff committee to simply rubber stamp the infamy. And to worsen matters, we saw an ethnically challenged civil service commission asking the Head of Service to serve merely as a post master in delivering Maina’s recall letter as she was explicitly directed not to add a word.

    It is important that our northern compatriots wean themselves of this their silly entitlement mentality, forever believing that they own this president and can therefore get away with anything, even murder. I have news for them. This president belongs to all of us. If, for nothing else besides humane consideration for those he believes he trusts, having been there with him during his time in political Siberia, and therefore reticent  about peremptorily dispensing with their services whatever their guilt they think they are more important than the rest of us  who trust this president, I say they lie. From this moment, they must come to the realisation that millions of Nigerians daily agonise over how they are making a normally difficult job much more difficult for him, mindlessly throwing him into positions where a thousand darts are simultaneously aimed at his solar plexus by members and supporters of a thoroughly lecherous party of buccaneers, rogues and serial loafers, who believe that our memories are so short we would not mind returning, so soon, to our vomit. PDP must recognise that  it is an absolutely irredeemable party, and that, short of an atomic bomb being hauled straight our medulla oblongata, it will continue  to remain  in disarray, and out of power,  for a very king time to come.

    Finally, it is particularly gratifying to note that one good thing to come out of this thoroughly nauseating incident was how very rapidly, but uncharacteristically, President Buhari acted decisively, directing that the ogre be promptly yanked off the Nigerian civil service. It is hoped that all pending issues gathering dust in his office will now be equally promptly dealt with so that a new chapter of diligent dealing could open up and his party, the APC, could thus be saved from all the unintended consequences of his delayed actions.

     

  • N2bn pension fraud: How minister begged EFCC operative to spare Maina

    N2bn pension fraud: How minister begged EFCC operative to spare Maina

    The row over the dismissed former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina, has deepened with fresh facts emerging that a minister begged a detective to spare the suspect.

    There were indications yesterday that the minister might have played a vital role in the reinstatement of Maina.

    Security agencies were also said to be probing allegation that Maina has a Nigerien passport, following an alert that he was smuggled out of the country through Niger Republic.

    Investigation revealed that the controversy surrounding the reinstatement of Maina suggested complicity by many government officials and top security agents.

    It was learnt that President Muhammadu Buhari would have to be “more painstaking” to be able to tackle the scandal now tagged MainaGate in some quarters.

    A top source said: “President Muhammadu Buhari needs a comprehensive appraisal of the circumstances surrounding the reinstatement of Maina. A syndicate in the government was behind the whole saga.

    “For instance, a minister had met with an EFCC operative, who was coordinating the investigation of Maina, to spare the suspect. This was done before the minister was inaugurated as a FEC member.

    “The said minister specifically demanded that Maina’s case be closed and the suspect should be used as a prosecution witness. He said Maina would make vital documents available to assist the EFCC.

    “The said session was held at the private office of the minister in Garki part of Abuja. But the operative, who was shocked by the plea, refused to cooperate with the minister.

    “If the government digs well, the operative (who has left the services of EFCC) can be recalled to give evidence on how and where the minister met him.”

    The source said apart from the minister, Maina was even closer to a former First Lady who did everything she could to protect him.

    And when the EFCC probe was intense on Maina, the ex-First Lady was said to have prevailed on “the stubborn detective” to stop the investigation.

    The source added: “Also, a former First Lady had tried to influence the EFCC on the investigation of Maina by mounting pressure on the same detective. This happened when CP Ibrahim Lamorde was the chairman of EFCC.

    “When the operative was adamant, the ex-First Lady allegedly engineered a petition against the operative by claiming that he collected N50 million from Maina.

    “The EFCC and other agencies investigated the bribery allegation and absolved the operative of any infraction.

    Findings however confirmed that Maina had been around the corridors of power in the last 23 years.

    Another source said: ”Maina is not new to the corridors of power. He had wielded influence in Aso Rock since the dictatorial regime of the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.

    “He knows every nook and cranny of Aso Rock, so he is used to floating in the seat of power, even during the administrations of ex-Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo before he was cut to size when Obasanjo was in charge.

    “Some forces in power also have been using him for a purpose which suited their interest. There is no security agency or the police hierarchy where he does not have contacts.

    “Everybody is denying Maina now, but he is a public officer who knows many people. He also keeps records of those who have benefitted from him.”

    At press time, there were indications that Maina has a Nigerien passport.

    It was gathered that he re-entered the country from exile in Dubai through Niger Republic.

    A third source said: “There is no record of his return to the country at any airport in Nigeria. Security agencies are looking at some clues which pointed to the fact that he might have used Niger Republic to come back home.

    “He is used to Niger Republic’s routes for escapades. He was said to have been smuggled out again to an unknown destination through one of the same routes.”

    Family sources told one of our correspondents yesterday that Maina’s family had concluded plans to drag the (EFCC) to court for harassing their son

    EFCC operatives in Kaduna had on Monday and Tuesday sealed six houses, including a two-storey office complex belonging to Maina, within the Kaduna metropolis.

    The family had also addressed a press conference where they cried out that their son was only being persecuted by corrupt elements in President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, threatening that Maina would soon open a can of worms capable of nailing the cabals in his pursuit.

    Spokesman of the Maina family, Malam Aliyu Maina, who addressed newsmen on behalf of the family said that the marking of the houses they inherited from their father in Kaduna by EFCC was not only wrong but illegal.

    Speaking with one of our correspondents in a telephone interview yesterday, Maina family’s lawyer, Sani Katu, said the family had concluded plans to sue the anti-graft agency over the recent development.

    He disclosed that filing of the court papers process had since commenced and would be made public as soon as the case is filed in court.

    According to him, “we have commenced the process of filing the case, and as soon as we are filing the case in court, we will let the press know. That is the update for now.”

    Meanwhile, the Kaduna zone of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said investigation was still ongoing to discover more of Maina’s properties.

    An official of the commission in Kaduna, Ibrahim Kamilu, told The Nation that “we are still carrying out our investigation, and once more of his properties are discovered, they will be sealed.”

  • Mainagate: “Give Maina Security Protection To Tell Nigerians The Truth”

    …CSOs accuse Jonathan govt of frame up
    President Mohammadu Buhari has been asked to give the embattled former Chairman, Presidential committee on Pension Reform Taskforce Team, PPRT, under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, security protection to tell Nigerians the truth about the pension scam.
    ‎The Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria, under the umbrella body of Coalition for Good Governance and Change Initiatives, at a press conference in Abuja, yesterday on the re-instatement and dis-engagement of Maina from the civil service‎ commended the prompt reaction of President Buhari, whose action in dis-engaging Mr. Maina is to douse tension. Comrade Okpokwu Ogenyi, National Co-ordinator of the Coalition also the effort of the President towards eradicating corruption in Nigeria, we as civil society body in Nigeria must stand with Mr President to ensure a corruption free Nigeria.
    Okpokwu said, “We have observed with kin interest, the position of the attorney general of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who is the chief law officer of Nigeria. We have equally seen the position of the Nigerian Senate, the People’s Democratic Party, The All Progressive Congress, the League of African Development Students, and as well as the civil service rule. We urge Nigerians not to panic, and advice actors of blame game to maintain caution, as the truth is gradually unfolding.
    “On the recoveries of stolen pension fund by the PRTT which the pension magazine gave the figure at 200 billion Naira. Where is this fund? Is it in the federation account or where? Mr Maina insisted that the money is in the federation account which both the past and present administration has not disputed. We also believed that, with the testimony of Sen Kabiru Gaya who said the 195billion Maina was accused of stealing by the senate joint probe on pension fund is in the federation account. Further accusation of the person of Mr Maina in that light shows that some body is after Abdulrasheed Maina especially with the sponsored media war on his person instead of the entire committee. Moreover, the 2.1 billion Naira biometric exercise which Maina was accused of mismanaging alongside Orosanye, the former head of service of the federation has long be settled as the law court discharged and acquitted the former head of service. This is based on the fact that, the biometric took captured the 774 Local government Areas in Nigeria.

    “It is of interest to say that, immediately the Maina’s led PRTT was disbanded, the government created what is called Pension Transition Administration Department, PTAD. Soon the Maina’s biometric was discontinue as the PTAD spent 8 billion Naira for the same biometric exercise that was done with 2.1 billion Naira earlier. This is a clear indication that Maina was mainly framed up by the Jonathan’s administration because during it reign, it was a taboo not to be corrupt.
    “We wish to use this medium to appeal to Mr President to look into the substance of the allegations and counter allegations by providing Mr Maina with adequate security and make Maina face the Nigeria public by telling his own side of the story. This we believe will expose all the corrupt leaders hiding under the absence of Mr Maina. It could be true that treasury looters are getting back at him to save their own heads.