*says Head of Service, EFCC playing games
By; IBRAHIM ADAMU, Kaduna
The real looters of pension funds are bent on ensuring that they do away with former chairman of Pension Reform Task Force, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina through fashioning out of several means, even as he recovered N2.93 trillion Naira for Federal Government.
This was contained in a statement signed by his media adviser, Abdullahi Usman, made available to newsmen on Friday night.
“The dream of those that looted pension funds is to do away with Mr. Maina by all means using all available plots,” it stated.
In the statement titled ‘Re-115 days later, Buhari fails to act on Head of Service report on Maina’ the media adviser said that the Head of Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, is part of those haunting him.
“Our attention has been drawn to a publication by an online news medium, the Premium Times with the above headline. Reading through the lines it was clear that the piece was simply intended to blackmail the former Chairman Pension Reform Task Force Mr. Abdurasheed Maina using deliberately concocted lies by the medium.
“Yes there was a presidential request for a report from the Head of Service Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita on Mr. Maina. She is to produce a report on Maina’s activities in an office where she served as the Director of Finance when the massive pension fraud took place.
“Definitely her fears of being exposed are not unconnected with the reason why she appears vicious against Maina most especially as she was the director of finance when N4.4b Pensions Funds was stolen during the President Jonathan’s administration,” he said.
It explained that acting on independently produced reports, especially when it appears that the party producing the report has an interest in the outcome, is indeed not expected to be without delay.
“Such delays result from personal interests and greed appeared to have been served by the said report. Notwithstanding, the report also requires scrutiny and even further investigation most especially as some of the things expected of the report contradicts the decisions of the courts.
“Maina distinguished himself in this post through his dedication and aptitude when he served under the former administration. By July 2011, his investigations had shaken up the pension sector. Several accounts, which had been used to siphon money from the pension fund, were uncovered.
“He assisted the Jonathan government in recovering over 1.63 trillion Naira worth of asset and cash on one hand and another N282 billion cash which the former Minister of Finance, Okonjo Iweala lodged at the CBN. This was welcome news, considering the fact that 98% of pensioners have been denied their benefits for so many years,” it stated.
The statement further said that it is of great importance to note that Maina recovered N1.3Trillion for the Buhari Administration in 2017.
“It is even as a result of this level of selfless national service that he won several cases in different courts in Abuja.
“These include the court judgment returning him to service after his suppressive dismissal and threat by the former regime, restraining the EFCC from arresting him and also declaring a travel restriction on him by the Nigerian Immigrations Service as illegal,” it noted.
The statement pointed out that the claim that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in several statements indicated that they are looking for Maina, but when confronted with that statement at the Kaduna Federal High Court, the EFCC counsel swore to an affidavit that EFCC never said Maina was wanted by its office pushing the blame on the media.
“The controversy created by the EFCC and the Head of Service remains unsubstantiated. What rather exists was only a personal intent by the EFCC boss Ibrahim Magu to clampdown on an opponent tribesman using the opportunity of his office.
“We shouldn’t be bothering ourselves trying to address every of the claims by the medium because we are not unaware of the paid plot to assassinate Maina’s character. Indeed we still recall the meeting with some Nigerian Editors at a restaurant in Abuja where some of them, including the one from the Premium Times, were paid to not only to blackmail Mr. Maina but to also put pressure on the government to assault him,” it concluded.
