Buhari had prior knowledge about my reinstatement – Maina

The former chairman of the Presidential Pension Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, has revealed that his reinstatement started with a meeting with the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“When this government came in, the President (Buhari Muhammadu) gave the nod that ‘go and sit down with Maina, I’ve given you the approval, Maina said Tuesday.

“They sat down with me after the security agencies had cleared me. Nobody has ever taken me to court in Nigeria, I want Nigerians to know; I have never been taken to any court of law. I have sued all the security agencies that they are talking about and I have won, I have four court judgments.”

“I want Nigerians to know. I have never been taken to any court of law. Nobody has ever sued me for anything. I’ve never been take to any court of law. “I have sued all the security agencies that we are talking about and I have won. I have full court judgements.”

“They place my name on INTERPOL, I went to court and removed it. They did this, I did this I removed it. There is nothing they have not done. Even the one they could not do, they went to immigration, put my name on no fly list. I went to the airport. I was in Nigeria, that was in 2015. I went to the court, the court granted me N2 million damages for not flying that day.”

“As soon as this present government decided to sit with me, and after sitting with, me, I told them I will not leave you to go back to Nigeria without something in your pocket. I’m going to give you something in your pocket and the Minister laughed.”

The Minister of Justice said what are you going to give us as gift? I gave him a document, I say go here, here, here, there’s N1.3 trillion they are going to steal it because they’ve been stealing every year. He was shocked, he said not possible. I said sir, with all due respect, could you please try it, this is a gift I’m giving you. I haven’t gotten to Nigeria, I’m just giving you a gift. I say try it for you to understand where I’m coming from.”

“I’m not a saint but I try as much as I can to help the system. The minister thought that won’t be possible, when he got back, he realised I gave him a correct information. Now, after giving him this information, he asked me, when are you coming back, I said I will soon be back. I said I have a court order. So, I asked my lawyer to write a petition. He now wrote a petition to government and the Minister set up a committee to look at the petition. They looked at the petition and recommended that this is a court order that there’s no question of going back on it, nobody has appealed it since 2013 so government must obey it. ”

“So, he sent a letter to the Federal Civil Service Commission to say this is the petition I got in my office, I’m attaching the court order which you must respect. I’m hearing people are saying he’s directing people to reinstate me. No, he said you must respect the court order, this is the court order because he is the chief officer of the country. ”

“Now, the document was taken to the Federal Civil Service Commission. I went to the Federal Civil Service Commission, they told me they have just received the documents, they are going to see me later and we have a meeting. After that meeting, they wrote office of the head of service. They say we want you to sit down with your Senior Staff Committee and after that you send it to the Ministry of Interior; that was used at that time because they were coerced which I later found out. The Senior Staff Committee was coerced by the then Head of Service, Mr. Isa Bello Sanni to make sure they send me out and packing because I had stopped the inflow of 5.2 billion monthly to the office of the Head of Service.”

“People around the President portray themselves as saints but it is a lie. My team recovered N282bn in cash; aside that, we were able to bring information that led to the arrest of 43 pension suspects. N1.6tn cash investment and properties were recovered.

“They have threatened my brothers, sisters and even my lawyer. They said I would be killed. They said my family would be annihilated if I testify. I have asked the President specifically that if he wants to know the truth and wants to be fair to the nation, he should give me the opportunity to present (evidence).