By Ikeddy Isiguzo
THE most recent mystery about Mallam Abdulrasheed Maina, the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT, was that he offered to recover $10 billion for Nigeria in 30 days. What is however unclear is the response of the Federal Government to the offer from Maina, who is as controversial as his statements. He seemed serious with the 1 October 2020 offer which elicited no official response. His only condition was that he wanted to deal directly with President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the funds would not be re-looted.
While Maina was making this hefty promise, he had failed to make court appearances on September 29 and 30. By October 2 and 19 when he had two further court misses, Justice Okon Abang revoked his bail. Twenty-three days after, with another failed appearance, Justice Abang sent former Senate Majority Leader, Ali Ndume to the Kuje Correctional Centre, where he would be kept until Maina was found.
Maina had been notorious for skipping court dates and darting out of the country. He reportedly made his latest entry into Nigeria from Niger Republic. Senator Ndume said searches for Maina as far as Niger Republic had failed to produce him. Did he realise the risk he ran in standing surety for Maina?
If Maina were to be believed, he was recovering from a surgery at an undisclosed place by the time of his 1 October 2020 promise to recover $10 billion for Nigeria in 30 days. He had proposed that the recovered money could be used to fix infrastructure deficits, ameliorate costs of fuel subsidy, and electricity tariff.
The press statement by his media aide, Aliyu Musa, boasted that Maina had assisted successive administrations, especially that of former President Jonathan; he recovered N1.6 trillion; N1.3 trillion and several movable and immovable properties were recovered for President Buhari’s administration.
Maina was sacked in 2014 for absconding from duty while he was being investigated over N2.1 billion that was alleged to be missing from the pension funds he claimed to have recovered. In 2017, he made a controversial return to service under the Ministry of Interior where he was said to have been re-instated and promoted without the knowledge of the Head of Service of the Federation.
A House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee that investigated the disappearance, re-appearance, re-instatement, and promotion of Maina made no progress before Maina left the country again. Public altercations among the Head of Service, the President’s Chief of Staff, Ministers of Justice, and Interior provided no clarity on Maina.
“My client was never sacked. He only went into hiding because of his dear life as a result of the pension fraud syndicate from whom he had recovered millions of Naira from and his planned effort to expose them. Among them are members of the National Assembly and some top retired civil servants and politicians who have continued to benefit illegally from pension fraud in the country for several decades,” his counsel alleged at the hearing.
Senator Ndume is almost as controversial as Maina who is from his Borno South constituency. Ndume served a six-month suspension in 2017 after challenging the integrity of some senators including the then Senate President Bukola Saraki. A court ruled the suspension illegal.
The Department of State Services spokesman, Dr. Peter Afunanya, in a formal statement said Maina’s arrest on 30 September, 2019, was a collaborative effort with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Faisal Abdulrasheed Maina, Maina’s 20-year-old son, according to the statement, pulled a pistol on the operatives of the DSS and EFCC.
“The lad even pulled a pistol against the security agents involved in the operation. He was, however, disarmed and arrested. He is a final year student at the Canadian University of Dubai where he is studying Telecoms Engineering. Items recovered from the suspects include a pistol with live ammunition, a bullet proof Range Rover SUV, a BMW Saloon car, foreign currencies, a phantom 7 drone and sensitive documents,” Dr. Afunanya said.
Maina was wheeled into court on 7 November 2019 for his bail hearing. He got the bail on 26 November 2019, but he was in jail for nine months following his inability to meet the bail conditions which the court kept varying to make the conditions easier for Maina. Ndume finally secured the bail on 29 June, 2020.
The Senator made court appearances, a condition of the bail. Maina was unavailable, often without reason. The court decision to detain Ndume has polarised views on the Maina trial.
Arewa Consultative Youth Forum compared the Maina case with Nnamdi Kanu’s abscondment and wondered why Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Kanu’s surety, was not kept in jail as Ndume. They do not agree that the cases were different, and different courts saw them in that light.
If Ndume was expecting gratitude from Maina’s relations, none would come his way. They have accused him of using Maina for political gains. According to Vanguard, his relations maintained that Ndume knew Maina’s political weight and realised that without Maina’s support, he would not win the in Borno South in 2023. Ndume reportedly has eyes set on running for the Senate again in 2023.
Maina, his family told Vanguard, was in hospital, too sick to face trial. He loved Nigeria too much to abscond. Ndume was unwilling to visit Maina in hospital because he was aligning with other political powers, the family alleged.
Who will rescue Ndume? Will Senate President Ahmed Lawan celebrate the travail of his political foe or intervene? Ndume ran against Lawan for the Senate presidency in 2019, refusing all entreaties to step down, even after a meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Lawan, the party’s candidate, won 79-28.
Anyone who bets on Maina does so in vain. The next time you hear about Maina, it could be that he had sneaked into Nigeria, was arrested, or had escaped abroad. With Maina possibilities abound, all pointing to oscillating interest in prosecuting him, just as nobody was interested in his offer to recover $10 billion for a country that slips in and out of recession with ease.
Isiguzo is a columnist and publisher