News of the arrest and handing over of Abdurasheed Maina, Chairman of the controversial Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT, by the Department of State Services must have been received with both glee and gloom nationwide, for obvious reasons. The man, Maina, a Borno State mandarin, is seen both as a saint and a villain depending on which side of the divide the viewer belongs.
While Maina took up the job in 2008, allegations of wrongdoing against him had already overwhelmed the Presidency and the National Assembly in 2010. By 2013 the whole country had been awash with stories of pension fraud and the need to flush Maina from the post. As at the time Maina was made chairman of PRTT, the sum of N24 billion had already been set aside by the federal government in various banks to use and pay the retirees, most of whom had suffered and died in the process of getting their pensions and gratuities without success.
Shortly after that, the same PRTT approved the sharing of another sum of N23 million this time to top government officials for the purpose of travelling to the United Kingdom for the purpose of undertaking biometric verification of pensioners. On the purported trip for verification of pensioners in South Africa, the sum of N18.4million was released by Maina and paid to top government officials, among whom was the Director General of budget, who got N3, 056,000. The sum of N9.1 million was expended as estacode for those who ‘went for verification in Ghana’ out of which a Director of Intelligence was paid the sum of N1,388,000 through his First Bank account while two female staff of EFCC got N1,275,000 each as part of the national cake.
“That Analysis of the above listed accounts revealed a total turnover of more than N2.7 billion. It is important to note that 95% of deposits into the fraudulent accounts were cash deposits made by bankers in their own names and other fictitious names. It was clear at the time that even the Presidency was handicapped because President Goodluck Jonathan could neither sack nor reprimand the powerful Maina apparently due to conflicting reports from those who praised him for his ‘good deeds and generosity and those who presented him as a ‘villain’ to the Presidency.
“Let me assure you that the Senate has the teeth to bite and it will bite when it is time to bite. Nobody can stop it,” Mark threatened.
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