Abdulrasheed Maina
The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee
Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), and prominent lawyer, Femi Falana
have called on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to arrest
immediately the wanted ex-chairman of the defunct Presidential Task Force on
Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, who has returned to Nigeria.
Maina, who fled the country in 2015 after being
indicted for allegedly perpetrating fraud to the tune of N2bn, returned to the
country and was posted to the Ministry of Interior based on the recommendation
of the Head of Service and was given double promotion.
But on Sunday evening, the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, maintained that Maina was
still wanted.
When asked if Maina would be arrested by the
commission, the EFCC spokesman refused to speak further.
The EFCC on its website, www.efccnigeria.org,
retained a picture of Maina, asking members of the public to help fish him out.
The EFCC wrote, “The public is hereby notified
that Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina, former chairman of the Pension Reform Task
Team, whose photograph appears above, is wanted by the EFCC for offences
bordering on procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretences.
“Dark-complexioned Maina is allegedly complicit
in the over N2bn pensions biometric scam in the office of the Head of Civil
Service of the Federation. He remains at large after charges were filed against
his accomplices.
“Anybody with useful information as to his
whereabouts should contact the commission in its Enugu, Kano, Lagos, Gombe,
Port Harcourt or Abuja offices.”
Speaking with our correspondent on Sunday, Sagay
said Maina’s case should not be treated with kid gloves based on the gravity of
the offence he allegedly committed.
The PACAC chairman described pension scam as one
of the worst forms of fraud known to mankind and anyone accused of such should
not be handled with kid gloves.
Sagay said, “This man was accused of embezzling
billions of naira meant for pensioners who had spent all their lives serving
this country. One man took the money they should rely on in their declining
years, subjecting them to misery and hopelessness.
“This is a moral and criminal issue. So, to hear
that the man is in the country and somebody employed him means he is not the
only criminal in the system. It means there is an accessory.
“Whoever was involved in employing him and then
giving him promotion is an accessory after the fact to the crimes committed by
this man if it is established that he is culpable. I don’t see why he escaped
if he was not guilty.”
He added, “The EFCC should not just say they are
aware; they should take action. The EFCC should now arrest him, interrogate him
and if they can establish a case, prosecute him. They should also investigate
all those involved in the reabsorbing and promotion of this man.
“If it established that they brought him back
into the civil service despite knowledge of the man’s alleged crimes, they are
also accessories after the fact and should also be arrested and prosecuted.”
In his reaction, the Ekiti State Governor,
Ayodele Fayose, mocked the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for
reabsorbing Maina.
Fayose said on his official Twitter
handle, “Someone accused of stealing billions of pension fund was returned to
the Federal Government civil service and you still think Buhari is fighting
corruption?”
Similarly, human rights lawyer, Falana urged the
EFCC to immediately charge Maina with the alleged N100bn pension fraud for
which he was declared wanted for years.
He equally called for the immediate prosecution
of the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, and the Head of Service of
the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, for allegedly shielding the suspect from
prosecution.
Falana, in a text message to our correspondent on
Sunday, also urged President Buhari to sanction those involved in Maina’s
recall and promotion in their bid to sabotage the administration’s
anti-corruption war.
He said, “Mr. Maina was declared wanted by the
EFCC because of his indictment in a pension scam. Now that he has been located,
the EFCC has a duty to charge him without any further delay.
“The Head of Service and interior minister who
shielded him from prosecution ought to be charged with aiding and abetting the
felon.
“Those who recalled and promoted the fugitive
ought to be sanctioned by President Buhari to serve as a deterrent to others
who may wish to sabotage the war against corruption.”
Also reacting to the development, Mr.Yusuf Ali
(SAN), said the re-absorption of Maina into the service, if true, was a big
blow to the anti-corruption efforts of the Federal Government.
He said, “We don’t have all the facts at the
moment. I don’t want to believe that the re-absorption of the man into the
civil service was true without him being discharged and acquitted by the court.
If that was the case, then it will be a big blow to the anti-corruption effort
of the government. When we have all the facts, we can make more definitive
comments.
Speaking in a similar vein, a retired Commissioner
of Police, Abubakar Tsav, said Maina’s reinstatement into the civil service
made a mockery of the anti-corruption posture of the President Muhammadu
Buhari-led administration.
He said, “The war against corruption is not true.
This man ran away after he was accused of embezzling pension fund; instead of
handing him over to the EFCC, he was re-absorbed and promoted. Why? This is
very bad. We expect that Buhari with his reputation as a man of high honesty
and integrity not to condone this kind of thing. If such a man can condone such
a thing, I don’t know where this country is going.
“Retired police officers are owed 32 months of
pension arrears, the money this man (Maina) is being accused to have stolen is
part of the money required to pay these arrears.
“Up till now, they have not been paid and this
man came back after he ran away, has been taken back and promoted. This is a
mockery of this anti-corruption fight.”
When contacted on the telephone on Sunday, the
Assistant Director (Press), Office of the Head of Service of the Federation,
Mohammed Manga, asked our correspondent if Maina had ever been dismissed from
office to warrant reports that he was reinstated.
Manga said, “Before we begin to talk of
reinstatement, was Maina dismissed from service at a point? In every
organisation, there are rules and regulations. The civil service is generally
governed by the civil service rules.
“If you say he was dismissed from service, who
dismissed him? If EFCC is looking for him, what did he say? What was the end of
its investigation?
“Let us find out if he was dismissed? Who
dismissed him? Who reinstated him and why?”
He was posted to my ministry by HOS –Internal
Affairs Minister
The Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman
Dambazau (retd.), has absolved himself from complicity in the reinstatement and
posting of the former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension
Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, to the ministry.
He said Maina, who was declared wanted by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, was posted to his ministry by the
Head of Service a few days ago.
Dambazau, in a statement signed by his press
secretary, Ehisienmen Osaigbovo, in Abuja on Sunday, said Maina was deployed to
the interior ministry in acting capacity to fill a vacancy following the retirement
of the director in charge of the human resources department.
The statement read, “The ex-chairman of the
Presidential Task Force Team on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, was posted
a few days ago to the Ministry of Interior by the Office of the Head of Service
on an acting capacity to fill a vacancy following the retirement of the
director heading the human resources department in the ministry.”
It added, “For the avoidance of doubt, issues
relating to discipline, employment, re-engagement, posting, promotion and
retirement of federal civil servants are the responsibility of the Federal
Civil Service Commission and the office of the Head of Service of the
Federation, of which no minister exercises such powers as erroneously
expressed.”
The minister said that Maina was probably posted
to the interior ministry because that was his last posting before he was
declared wanted by the anti-graft commission for the multi-billion naira
pension fund scam.
