- President sacks him, queries
Head of Service
- HoS submits report to Buhari,
says Dambazau lied
- EFCC traces Maina to Kaduna,
marks his $2m house
- AGF approved ex-pension chief’s
return –Documents
- He got N22m salary arrears,
wants to be gov –PDP, source
The
embattled ex-chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms,
Abdulrasheed Maina, who has been accused of complicity in a N2bn fraud, has
gone into hiding.
The
fugitive, who is still on the wanted list of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission for the alleged offence, went into hiding soon after news that the
anti-graft agency had launched a manhunt for him became public.
One
of our correspondents gathered that Maina, who had been reinstated as an acting
director in the Ministry of Interior, was to meet with yet to be identified
persons in his office but apparently had a change of heart because he was
nowhere near the office building when our reporter arrived at the office at
8.20am and at 2.00pm when he left.
The office located at the Old Secretariat in Area
1, consists of a reception, a waiting room before a massive door leading up to
the director’s office.
The reception looked dreary while two young men
in the waiting room fiddled with their phones as they conversed in low tones.
Attempts to speak with the female secretary, who refused to give her name,
failed as she rebuffed all questions.
In response to enquiries about the whereabouts of
her new boss, she snapped, “I don’t know where he is.”
A source, who spoke to one of our correspondents,
in confidence because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Maina travelled to
Kano during the weekend and had given appointments to some persons to meet him
at the office on Monday but went into hiding soon afterwards.
The source said, “He planned to meet with some
visitors in his office on Monday but for him to have aborted the appointment
and switched off his phones meant he had gone underground. He may not be seen
for a little while.”
It was learnt that the fugitive had over the last
few months held meetings with several groups and individuals with respect to
his ambition to contest in the 2019 governorship election in his home state of
Borno.
“Maina has not hidden his political plans as he
is known to broadcast his ambition on WhatsApp platform to his friends
and associates,” the source further explained.
Nigeria’s foremost anti-graft agency, the EFCC
also said it was still searching for Maina whom it declared wanted about two
years ago.
The EFCC Spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, who
spoke to one of our correspondents around 8pm on Monday, said the commission
was still on his trail.
He, however, stated that the commission had
marked his houses in Abuja including a house in Jabi said to be worth about
$2m.
Uwujaren said, “Yes, his properties were marked
today. To the best of my knowledge, he has not yet been arrested.”
Another source within the EFCC accused a sister
security agency, the Department of State Services, of shielding the suspect
from arrest.
The source said Maina was moving around town in a
bulletproof Range Rover Sports Utility Vehicle and two or three vehicles.
The source said, “We have traced him to a hotel
in Kaduna where he went to spend the weekend; we know that the DSS is
protecting him and the DG DSS, deployed men to protect him. But make no
mistake, we will arrest him, already we’ve frozen all his accounts.”
Another source said, “He stays in a property
which is a DSS safe house. He moves around in a convoy of about two or three
vehicles. I personally saw him alighting from a Range Rover SUV last week with
about four DSS officials.”
The DSS, which does not have an official media
relations officer, also responded to EFCC’s allegations through a source close
to it, the source challenged the EFCC to support its claims with evidence.
The DSS source said, “There is no need responding
to baseless allegations because there was nothing like that. Both of us are
doing same work, which is apart from making the country safe from
fraudulent people, we also collaborate with each other in the area of
collating of data on other things. This is why I’m surprised on this baseless
allegation by an unknown person. Anyway, that’s all.”
Commenting on the manhunt for the fugitive,
prominent human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), called on the EFCC to
compel Dambazzau to produce him.
Falana said since the minister had admitted that
Maina was working under him, he should know his whereabouts.
He said, “The allegation on the ground is that he
has stolen N100bn from pension fund. It is the worst case of corruption. It is
a crime against humanity to divert money meant for pensioners. Whether he was
reinstated properly or not is diversionary. The questions should be when will
government recover the money? When will he be arraigned?
“The EFCC should ask those who reinstated him to
produce him. He is in a ministry and the minister has come out to admit that he
has been promoted.”
A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Jiti Ogunye, hailed the
President for taking action but noted that Buhari lacked the power to dismiss a
civil servant as it contravenes Rule 04102 of the Public Service Rules which
provides that “the power to dismiss and to exercise disciplinary control over
officers in the Federal Civil Service Commission is vested in the FCSC.”
Ogunye, however, urged the President to sack all
his political appointees that might have aided Maina.
Earlier on Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari
ordered for Maina’s immediate disengagement from the Federal Civil Service and
directed the Head of Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, to furnish his office with
a full report on the circumstances of his recall.
This was contained in a tweet by the Special
Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on his
Twitter handle, @FemAdesina, on Monday.
Adesina tweeted, “PMB orders immediate
disengagement of Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina from service. Asks for full report on
circumstances of his recall.”
In a statement he later signed, Adesina quoted
the President as ordering that the full report should be submitted to his Chief
of Staff, Abba Kyari, for onward transmission to him before the close of work
on Monday.
One of our correspondents gathered that Mrs.
Oyo-Ita, who was in her home state for the burial of her close relative when
the presidential order was given, had to rush back to attend to it.
An official in her office told our correspondent,
“Madam is not in town. She is bereaved; she lost her sister and the burial took
place this weekend but she is finding her way back to Abuja now.”
In a statement signed on her behalf by an
Assistant Director, Media Relations, in the office of the Head of Service,
Mohammed Manga, the HoS claimed that Maina’s reinstatement and subsequent
posting did not originate from her office.
The three-paragraph statement read, “The
attention of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has
been drawn to several media reports that the Head of the Civil Service of the
Federation has approved the reinstatement into the Federal Civil Service of
Alhaji Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina and his subsequent posting to the Ministry
of Interior.
“The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation
wishes to inform the public that the re-instatement and posting of Alhaji
Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina never emanated from the Office of the Head of the
Civil Service of the Federation.
“Consequently, the purported reinstatement and
posting by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation is
totally erroneous and misleading.”
Oyo-Ita’s claim contradicts claims made by the
Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd.), who had while
absolving himself of complicity blamed the office of the HoS.
Dambazau had in a statement on Sunday claimed
that the wanted man was posted to his ministry by the HoS a “few day ago” to
fill a vacancy.
At about 8.24pm on Monday, The PUNCH
exclusively confirmed that Mrs. Oyo-Ita had complied with the President’s
directive by submitting a report on the circumstances surrounding the
reinstatement and subsequent posting of Maina as an acting director in the
Ministry of Interior.
While confirming that she has carried out the
President’s directive, Oyo-Ita explained that the role played by her office in
the whole saga was based on legal advice by the Attorney-General of the
Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
The following conversation ensued between our
correspondent and the HoS:
The PUNCH: I am trying to
find out Ma if you have made the report on Maina’s reinstatement available to
the President as directed.
Oyo-Ita: Oh! Of course, I have.
The PUNCH: Oh, You’ve
done that already?
Oyo-Ita: Yes, I did.
The PUNCH: We have also
seen a statement from your office that you did not order his reinstatement.
Oyo-Ita: Yes! Please, I need to correct that
erroneous impression.
The PUNCH: We also
have a document indicating that the advice for Maina’s reinstatement was given
by the AGF.
Oyo-Ita: Yes.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on
Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on
Monday evening confirmed that the Presidency had
received Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita’s report on the reinstatement of Maina.
In a text message, Shehu said the report was
being studied while others were being awaited. He did not state the other
reports being awaited.
“I have confirmation that the Head of Service of
the Federation, Mrs. Oyo-Ita, has brought the report on the re-engagement of
Abdulrasheed Maina as directed by the President. This is being studied as other
reports are being awaited,” he wrote.
When contacted, the Director, Press and Public
Relations, of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Dr Joel Oruche, said, “The
Presidency has already cancelled the posting of the man.”
Asked further to comment on the authenticity of a
letter purportedly written by the commission to the HoS to reinstate Maina, he
said, “Send it (letter) to me. Let me see it first. By tomorrow (Tuesday), I
will find out what happened.”
Maina got N22m salary arrears
–PDP
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party said it
was not surprised by the Federal Government’s controversial decision to
reinstate Maina.
The PDP said the decision was a confirmation
of the classical novel by a British author, Jeffery Archer titled, Honour
among thieves, where he postulated that criminals do not compromise the
actions of other criminals”.
The former ruling party warned that corruption
would soon consume the country.
PDP’s position was contained in a statement
signed by its spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye, in Abuja on Monday. According to him,
Nigerians had expected Maina to be arrested not reinstated.
He said, “It is in the light of this that
the PDP wishes to state that we are not too shocked at the steps taken by the
administration of the All Progressives Congress in reinstating a supposed
criminal and fugitive, Abdulrasheed Maina, to office instead of getting him
arrested. Birds of a feather flock together.
“All people of good conscience will not forget in
a hurry that Maina, who was given an assignment by the last administration of
the PDP to superintend the now defunct Presidential Task Force on Pension
Reforms, dipped his hands into the jar and helped himself to N100bn of what he
was supposed to safeguard.
“With good conscience at fighting corruption, the
PDP government then, mandated the anti-corruption agencies to perform their
constitutional duty. Maina fled, only to resurface in the country four months
ago under the Buhari administration.”
He added, “As a party of good conscience, we wish
to condemn in strongest terms the penchant of the administration of President
Buhari to giving safe haven to known criminals while hoodwinking Nigerians that
it’s fighting corruption.”
Adeyeye also alleged that Maina had been paid
N22m salary arrears by the Federal Government.
He said, “We are worried that the APC
administration seem to have grown thick skins to constructive criticism;
otherwise, no sane government, in spite of the open condemnation the party has
received from Nigerians over its shielding of criminals, will repeat another
one as done in the case of Maina.
“It is reported that the fugitive has been
rewarded with payment of bogus salary arrears amounting to N22m, which he has
reportedly collected upon approval and released by the Accountant General of
the Federation. We dare the government of the day to deny this with verifiable
evidence.”
The party equally demanded the immediate sacking
of the Minister of Interior and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice
for complicity in Maina’s journey back into the system.
Meanwhile, the National President of the Nigeria
Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for
ordering Maina’s immediate disengagement from service.
While commending President Buhari for acting
promptly, Wabba said, “The manner of Mr. Maina’s re-engagement and posting as
Director to the Ministry of Interior is an affront to law and procedure, insult
to Nigerians and a mockery of Mr. President’s fight against corruption; indeed,
it is the height of arrogance and impunity.”
The labour union also demanded a full
investigation into the matter.
