Buhari sacks wanted Maina, who was smuggled back to office

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday directed the immediate disengagement from service of Mr Abdullahi Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms.

Buhari in a memo to the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, also demanded a full report of the circumstances of Maina’s recall and posting to the Ministry of Interior.

Mr. Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, said the report is to be submitted to the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, before the end of work same day, Monday, October 23, 2017.

Maina was in 2010 drafted by the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to sanitize pension system in the country of corruption.

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He was later appointed chairman of the Presidential Task Team on Pension Reforms after serving as an assistant director in the ministry.

In 2012, he was alleged to have led a massive pension fraud scheme amounting to over N100 billion. Sequel to this allegation, Maina was summoned by the Senate Joint Committee on Public Service and Establishment and State and Local Government Administration.

Upon completion of its probe in Maina’s alleged fraud, the Senate issued a Warrant of Arrest against Mr. Maina.

After he ignored the Senate panel, Maina sued the Senate and the then Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.

He later went into hiding after the Nigerian Police declared him wanted. He was thereafter dismissed by the Head of Service for alleged abandonment of duty, attempting to evade arrest and consequently charged to court.

On July 21, 2015, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged Maina alongside Stephen Oronsaye and two others before a Federal High Court on a 24-count charge bordering on procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretence.

Although Oronsaye and the two other accused along Maina appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the charges leveled against them, Maina was nowhere to be found.

Sequel to this, the EFCC also declared him wanted.

Maina was said to have run to the United Arab Emirates where he has been since declared wanted and had obviously lobbied his way back into the civil service.

 

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