Former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension
Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, has requested to appear before a House of
Representatives investigative panel, Daily Trust has learnt. The
House is probing the circumstances of his controversial promotion and
reinstatement into the federal civil service.
Maina is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) over alleged billion naira fraud. Following media reports
about his secret reinstatement, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered his
immediate sack. He also directed the Head of the Civil Service of the
Federation (HoS), to submit a report on how Maina was recalled into the
service.
The report was
submitted but its content was soon after leaked to the media causing more
scandal for the government because it revealed the involvement of senior
government officials in the whole affair.
Sources within and outside the panel told Daily Trust yesterday that
Maina, who was reported to have fled the country after the scandal of his
secret reinstatement and promotion to a position of director, is indeed
somewhere in the country. It was gathered that Maina submitted some documents
to the House panel, chaired by Aliyu Sani Madaki, (APC Kano State). The
documents, Daily Trust further learnt, were submitted by one Barrister Muhammad
Sani Katu, a lawyer with the Justice Maman Nasir Chambers.
Maina is expected
to appear before the panel next week barring change of schedule, the sources
said. However, the sources said, powerful forces were making frantic efforts to
prevent him from appearing before the panel as he is likely to open “can of
worms” against them. “Yes, he has expressed his readiness to appear before the
panel to testify. But the problem is that some forces don’t want him to appear,
because they feel threatened; they feel he’s likely to open can of worms.
“That’s the true
picture of the situation, but the committee has gone far in its activities.
What we can’t say certainly is if the forces will allow the man (Maina) to
appear before the committee,” a source familiar with the matter said. The House
last month resolved to probe the circumstances that led to Maina’s recall which
it described as embarrassing and unacceptable. Madaki could not be reached to
confirm Maina’s readiness to testify before his committee as his mobile phones
were shut down at the time of filing this report.
Maina, who chaired
the pension task force during last administration, was alleged to have mismanaged
billions of naira meant pensioners across the country. The 7th Senate had probed the matter and
indicted him for the offence. Following the indictment, the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declared him wanted. But he allegedly embarked
on a self-exile. He reportedly returned to the country surreptitiously earlier
this and got recalled into the civil service and promoted to the position of a
director, even though he left the civil service as an assistant director in
2013.
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