[GIST] Why I’m Being Haunted – Maina Finally Opens Up
Why I’m Being Haunted – Maina Finally Opens Up
Abdulrasheed Maina
Abdulrasheed Maina, the embattled former Chairman of the Pension
Reform Task Team (PRTT), has said that, he is being haunted for stopping
N5.32bn which he alleged was being stolen monthly in the office of the
Head of Service and Police Pension office alone.
According to The Nation, Maina said, his media trial and framed up
allegations were part of efforts by ‘pension thieves’ to stop him from
exposing them, which is why he asked President Muhammadu Buhari to
thoroughly investigate pending pension petitions, especially as Senator
Kabiru Gaya said in an interview that, that the N195bn which he (Maina)
was accused of stealing is in the TSA account.
Speaking through his aide, Olajide Fashikun in Kaduna on Tuesday,
Maina who has been on the run said the presidential investigation is
imperative to expose the real pension thieves, some of whom he alleged,
are highly placed public office holders, adding that such will bring
respite to starving pensioners.
Maina, who said his Task Team saved the country about N282bn from
June 2010, when it was constituted, revealed that, the presidential
investigation will also expose the sum of six million pounds stashed in
accounts in London and the top government functionaries in different
offices who are drawing the interest on the accounts.
According to him, “between the Head of Service and the Police
Pension office, the two places PRTT worked, a leakage of N5.32billion
was stopped per month. This is what civil servants steal monthly in the
two offices out of the 99 pension offices in the country. 43 persons
were arrested and handed over to the EFCC to prosecute while 222 houses
were seized from them.
“As soon as Maina was driven to exile before the coming of the
PTAD, N35billion was stolen in the Head of Service. The ICPC did not
come out with the report. How come no body is talking about these
monies? Fashikun asked.
“In the current media trial where all manners of stories have
been published, there has been a lot of distortion of facts and
sometimes outright blackmail, all in an attempt to paint the PRTT boss
black like Lucifer”.
“After the biometric exercise, there were 71,000 genuine
workers in the police pension office who needed N826million to pay them
unlike N5.3billion appropriated for them annually. They were pocketing
N4.2billion yearly. They devised several ingenious ways to pull these
cash out. They pull out an average of N300million daily Monday to
Friday. There are bank alerts to substantiate these assertions.
“There is a particular person who has 69 cloned versions of his
name on the pay roll. Bank officials were in cohort. Names of dead
pensioners were ‘exhumed’ from the dead and paid pension. Accounts were
created with fictitious names.
“The agents who do the multiple collections of these monies
from banks get 5% of the volume collected. One of the folks caught then
by name Haruna Maigida was paid via three accounts in June 2011 the sums
of N7, 783,891.68, N17, 452,910.87 and N17, 293,888.44. He got 5% for
pulling the cash. He confessed when the EFCC officials arrested him.
“In petitions one of Teidi’s aide made to the EFCC and ICPC,
Mr. Teidi had said he paid the money to Senator Etuk in foreign currency
and that the bribe was meant to prevent their prosecution. He told
investigators that he equally bribed Farida Waziri, former Chairman of
the EFCC. Why has the two anti-graft agencies not investigated this
matter? Why are they after the man who caught the ‘thieves’ and are not
after the ‘thieves’?
Speaking further, Maina’s aide stressed “there has been a lot
of deliberate cover in a well written script to give Maina a bad name.
Some of those who worked in the PRTT do ‘kabu-kabu’ to augment their
survival. They were severely starved of funds, Maina’s PRTT was a clog
in the wheel of so many who were looting the pensioner’s funds.
“The then Senate Committee in a bid to crucify Maina did the hatchet job, when they told the Nigerians that, he stole N195billion. Meanwhile, on 13th April 2016, former Kano Governor, Senator Kabiru Gaya, told The Sun newspaper in an interview that money was never missing. So, why is he being tried for the money that is now confirmed not missing? According to the structure of the task force, Maina like none of them therein never had access to the pension fund and could never have taken one Naira lest over N2 billion.
“Former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala during a Senate meeting said that Maina had no contact with funds and revealed how she froze the account where the monies recovered by Maina’s committee was kept and how she transferred the funds to the CBN. So, why will the EFCC continue to hound a man for an offence which they know he is innocent of? Maina was only the head of the team which comprised of EFCC, ICPC, DSS, NIA, office of Accountant General, Auditor General, Public Complaints Commission etc. He was the only civilian in the Task Team.
“Maina was just a victim of high power play of some powerful individuals in high places. So, for three years, Maina suffered ‘media trial’, where he has found guilty several times on the pages of newspaper.
“Despite the several facts presented before the Senate committee during the hearing, the committee chose to ignore the facts, instead, they threatened the then President Goodluck Jonathan, following which Maina was shot with five bullets wounds on the side glass of the bullet proof car Jonathan gave him”, he said.
Mr. Maina said he had “verifiable” evidence the federal pension scheme was returning to “the looting era” which his team set out to end, with an alleged 98% of pensioners denied their benefits since November, 2012.
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