Maina helped Buhari’s administration recover N1.3tn from looters, family claims

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The embattled former Pensions Fund Chief, Abdulrasheed Maina, is said to have assisted President Muhammad Buhari’s administration in recovering N1.3 trillion from looters for which a promise of 5% is yet to be paid to him.
The spokesperson of the family, Abdullahi Usman disclosed this in a statement made available to the media in Kaduna yesterday.
The statement added, that Maina alone under the DSS office recovered the funds, what the entire workforce of ICPC and EFCC cannot boast of since their inauguration as anti-corruption agencies in 2000 and 2002 respectively.
He said the trend of persecution against Maina could kill the morale of those intending to give required information to support fight against corruption in the country.
“ Maina has secured five court judgements in his favor that are yet to be enforced even against the EFCC who have been restricted from harassing him.
“With the facts and genuine information in possession of Maina, persecuting him is more like protecting the real pension thieves in the country.
“The anti-graft umpire in the country should be working with Maina to secure convictions of the real pensions looters, both those under prosecution and those not identified and brought to book by the anti-graft commission.
“It was evident that while Maina served as Customs, Immigration and Prisons Office, CIPPO boss, it was the best run pension office at that time owing to the software he developed at no cost to government.
“This software streamlined the processes which the then minister of interior used to administer that office with the lowest budget and the highest number of pensioners.
“A Pension Reform Task Team was inaugurated by President Jonathan under the leadership of Maina with senior level leadership from ICPC, Immigration, EFCC, Police, NIA, DSS, Prisons, Customs, Accountant General’s office, Attorney General’s office, Public Complaint Commission and Head of Service’s office. They were tasked with the duty of reforming the pension administration system.
“The agencies represented in Maina’s team exclusively executed and handled recoveries and not Maina as an individual but he supplied intelligence and technical knowhow.”