Our son is not a fraudster, Maina’s Family opens up, says media campaigns not against Maina but targeted at Buhari’s effort

*Adds embattled ex-pension boss in possession of facts to expose cabal  behind son’s travails

*We didn’t invite Maina – Presidency nullifies family’s claim

The former Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, threatened yesterday to open a can of worms and implicate what he called a cabal in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Disclosing Maina’s position in a statement, his family said that he was invited to join the Buhari government.

“It is on record that Abdulrasheed Maina‘s reform put a stop to fraudulent withdrawal of huge sums from both the Nigerian Pension Board and the Nigerian Police Pension Board. Perhaps it is his noble effort that made him enviable to the present administration when they came into power to convince him to come back and assist in its change agenda,” the family said.

Maina was sacked in 2013 for his involvement in a N100 billion pension scam. He later turned down summons from authorities before fleeing the country.

But Maina reappeared in the country as a deputy director in the Ministry of Interior.

Following public outcry, Buhari recently ordered Maina’s sack and probe into how he returned into the country and was posted to the ministry.

But yesterday, the family of Maina came to his defence, saying he was in possession of facts capable of exposing the cabal after him.

In a statement by a member of the family, Aliyu Maina, he stated that Maina was not a fraudster, but a messiah who brought remarkable reforms into the Nigerian pension scheme, as the reform under him averted fraudulent withdrawal and syphoning of pension funds.

The statement reads: “You must have noticed the recent attempt by some cabal to ridicule and tarnish the image of the Maina family in both social, electronic and print media, where our brother, father and uncle have been blackmailed as a fraudster. The cabal has gone to the extent of marking our house in red paints with an inscription of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“The entire family of Abdullahi Maina hereby categorically states that our son is not in any way a fraudster, rather he is a messiah whose effort saw the disappearance of pensioners roaming the streets of F.C.T. and other state capitals.

“We are aware that all this act of calumny is not targeted against Abdulrasheed Maina but the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Office of the Attorney General.”

The family said it had contacted its solicitors and instructed them to act. “We equally know that Abdulrasheed Maina is in possession of so many facts that is against the cabal and interesting to the Nigeria populace, which he will disclose soonest. One must ask whether it is an offence for somebody to serve his father’s land faithfully,” the statement concluded.

We didn’t invite Maina – Presidency nullifies family’s claim

The Presidency has said that the claim that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration invited the wanted Abdulrasheed Maina back into the country is a ‘freshly minted falsehood’, which must be discarded by well-meaning Nigerians.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, in a statement he issued in Abuja Wednesday night, dismissed the claim as ridiculous.

The statement read: “The claim that the Buhari administration invited the wanted Abdulrasheed Maina back into country is a freshly minted falsehood. Nobody should believe that.

“The family that made that claim simply wanted to be ridiculous. Please ignore them.’’

The presidential aide, had on Tuesday, issued a disclaimer on a group-photograph of President Buhari, Senate President Bukola Saraki and a member of the House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa, being circulated in the social media in which Doguwa, was mistaken to be Abdulrasheed Maina.

Shehu said: “There is a photograph all over the Social Media of President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Hon. Ado Garba Doguwa Alhassan being mistaken to be the embattled ex-chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina.

“Doguwa is the Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency of Kano State.

“Doguwa represented the Speaker of the House of Representatives at the special Jummat prayers to mark the nation’s 57th year anniversary at the Presidential Villa weeks ago.

“The Speaker could not attend the event because he is a Christian. Please be guided!’’

Maina was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan as Chairman of the task force in 2010 to check the corruption in the country’s pension system.

In 2012, the Nigeria Police accused him of misappropriating N100 billion pension funds in connivance with others.

The Civil Service Commission reportedly dismissed him for “absconding from duty’’.

Maina was arraigned in absentia by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which declared him wanted in 2015.

Spokesman of the anti-graft Wilson Uwujaren, agency in a statement recently, said Maina remained on the commission’s wanted list.