By Ikechukwu Amaechi
The unfolding “Mainagate” which is rocking the
pretentious Muhammadu Buhari presidency is classical Nigerian drama. Alhaji
Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Presidential Task Force on
Pension Reforms, who was accused of dipping his fingers into the pension honey
pot, and fled the country in 2015, sauntered back noisily as if nothing
happened.
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| *Abdulrasheed Maina |
On July 21, 2015, the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) charged him, along with others, to a Federal High Court on a
24-count charge bordering on procurement fraud including falsified biometric
contracts, which resulted in the alleged mismanagement of over N2 billion of
pension funds with which he allegedly acquired choice mansions in Abuja Jabi Lake
And guess what? He paid cash.
Rather than face trial, Maina fled the country and the
EFCC declared him wanted on November 2, 2015.
Then, two years into the Buhari presidency, he
returned, but not quietly. An Igbo adage says a child sent to steal by his
father does not approach his victim’s house stealthily. He rather kicks doors
open with a bang.
Rather than lie low, his posters surfaced announcing
his governorship ambition in his home state of Borno come 2019. As if that was
not audacious enough, he showed up at the Ministry of Interior, behind a huge
mahogany desk, and wait for it, not as Assistant Director, his previous
position, but acting Director in-charge of human resources department and a
whopping sum of N22 million was doled out to him as arrears of his unpaid
salary since he was sacked from the civil service in 2013.
