{"id":149009,"date":"2019-09-03T19:32:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T18:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=149009"},"modified":"2019-09-03T19:32:59","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T18:32:59","slug":"n2-1-billion-pension-scam-buhari-magu-efcc-keep-mum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=149009","title":{"rendered":"N2.1 Billion Pension Scam: Buhari, Magu, EFCC Keep Mum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"\"<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There are strong indications that the Economic and Financial Crimes
\nCommission has abandoned the hunt for the Chairman of the defunct
\nPension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, indicted for N2.1
\nbillion pension biometric scam.<\/p>\n

Punch reports that the EFCC lost interest in the case following the
\nofficial protection enjoyed by the ex-director who was also promoted
\nafter his controversial reinstatement into the civil service by
\nPresident Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s government in 2017.<\/p>\n

Sources said the anti-graft body had abandoned the search for Maina,
\nnoting that \u201che is more or less a free man now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newspaper quoted a source as saying, \u201cIs anyone talking about
\nMaina again? He is no longer a fugitive and the EFCC has abandoned the
\nhunt for him. If you are in doubt, ask Ibrahim Magu (acting EFCC
\nChairman) for an update on his case and hear what he would tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said there was no update on the
\nmanhunt for the former director.<\/p>\n

Maina was reportedly nursing a governorship ambition to rule his home
\nstate of Borno when he fled the country after he was declared wanted
\nby the anti-graft agency in 2013.<\/p>\n

He fled to the United Arab Emirates where he hibernated for three
\nyears until he was said to have met with the Attorney General of the
\nFederation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, in Dubai, in
\n2016, during which he was reportedly assured of his safety in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Shortly after this, Maina\u2019s name was reportedly taken off the watch
\nlist at the nation\u2019s international airports and he had been visiting
\nthe country more regularly from his foreign base.<\/p>\n

The former PRTT chairman was being protected from arrest and
\nprosecution by top officials in the Presidency and the Ministry of
\nJustice and that while placed on the International Police wanted list,
\nhe was always in the country hobnobbing with senior officials, it was
\nreported.<\/p>\n

A source claimed that Maina was \u201ca friend of the government, no
\nenforcement agency would dare take him into custody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malami had in November 2017 admitted before a senate ad hoc panel
\nprobing Maina\u2019s reinstatement into the civil service that he met with
\nthe former PRTT boss in Dubai.<\/p>\n

Sequel to this, Maina resumed at the Ministry of Interior where he was
\npromoted as Director, Human Resources Department, without sitting the
\nmandatory promotion examination.<\/p>\n

Against the backdrop of the revelations, Buhari ordered the sacking of
\nthe director and the Senate also set up an ad-hoc committee to
\ndetermine the circumstances that led to the return of Maina to the
\ncountry and his reinstatement into the service despite being on the
\nsecurity watch list.<\/p>\n

But the report of the committee headed by the then Chairman, Senate
\nCommittee on Establishments and Public Services, Senator Emmanuel
\nPaulker (PDP, Bayelsa Central), was not released till the tenure of
\nthe eight Senate lapsed.<\/p>\n

Maina in January 2019, secured a court order stopping the EFCC from
\ndeclaring him wanted.<\/p>\n

Justice Giwa Ogunbanjo of the Federal High Court described the action
\nof the anti-graft agency in declaring Maina wanted as unlawful, but
\nthe commission vowed to appeal against the order.<\/p>\n

When asked if the commission had appealed the court order obtained by
\nMaina against his arrest, the EFCC spokesman pleaded with Punch for
\ntime to find out from the commission\u2019s director of the legal
\ndepartment.<\/p>\n

He later said he could not reach the director as calls to his phone rang out.<\/p>\n

Checks, however, showed that Maina is still listed as a wanted person
\non EFCC’s website.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are strong indications that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has abandoned the hunt for the Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, indicted for N2.1 billion pension biometric scam. Punch reports that the EFCC lost interest in the case following the official protection enjoyed by the ex-director who was also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2830,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/149010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}