The erstwhile Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) Abdulrasheed Maina, is not wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
One of his associates, Barrister Olajide Oloye, in a statement issued in Abuja, yesterday, said “Our attention has been drawn to some publications with the above title featuring Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) as being wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged pension fraud.
“We would have ignored the biased, unresearched and unfounded report but for the pain it has caused Maina, his friends, business associates and family members, we decided to set the records straight.
“It is instructive to state that we shall not hesitate to take the sure, slow but assured law of legal redress against media houses that publish materials that have no grounds of authority against our persons as members of the PRTT and our official conducts which we did in the best interest of this nation while the thieves that contrived against us are made to look like saints and we who caught the thieves are made to look like villains.
“The facts: One, Abdulrasheed Maina is not wanted by the EFCC or any anti-graft agency in the country”.
Continuing, Oloye said, “Secondly, and very important too, the reference to Maina being joined in any suit with the ex-head of service, Mr. Steve Orosanye, who he has so much respect for, is a calculated attempt to hide the truth. You, as journalists, owe this nation a duty to investigate and deliver behind-the-scene developments and criminal actions of people who hold public offices.
On the Orosanye suit, Mr. Maina has repeatedly said he is ready to defend himself given the enabling environment. If you are familiar with the matter, you would recall that his counsel, Ms. Esther Uzoma Esq, had made a statement in that regard.
“The EFCC should come clean on the matter of my client, Dr. Abdulrasheed Maina. When I appeared before His Lordship, Justice Kolawole on July 21, I made it clear that the EFCC was yet to file any charge as well as serve any summons on Dr. Maina.”
“It is trite law that you cannot say an accused is on the run when there is no charge preferred against him or any invitation extended to him.
“During the hearing for the bail application, counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs SAN, wanted the court to direct me to produce Maina in court at the next sitting which I argued that there are clear procedures, which the EFCC is familiar with and should follow.
“Naturally, the court agreed with my submission on the position of law. Therefore, it is misleading for the EFCC in its statement of Monday to mislead the public that there exists an order for Maina to be produced in court when there is no invitation extended to him talk-less of a charge preferred against him by the commission.”
It may interest your newspaper to note that even Maina’s main accuser, Senator Kabiru Gaya, told The Sun newspaper of 12th April, 2016 that he (Gaya) lied against Maina and the Pension Reform Task Team.
These are his very words: “You remember I was a member of the 6th and 7th Senate and I am still a member of the 8th National Assembly. During the 7th Senate, we were able to do a probe of the pension scam. I was a co-chair of that committee. During that investigation, we were able to discover N195 billion stocked in accounts of various Departments, Agencies and Ministries (MDAs) for pension and they were not using those monies. These are kinds of money that form part of the TSA and it is a welcome idea. It is an excellent idea. Now, we can use money we have to achieve what we want.”
