Maina: Frank gives Senate 7-day ultimatum to release report on Pension Reforms

A chieftain of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Comrade Timi Frank has given the Senate a seven-day ultimatum to make public its findings on the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, under the agency former boss, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina.

Frank in a statement issued to newsmen at the weekend said he would drag the Red Chamber to court if it fails to release the report at the expiration of seven days.

Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that the former chairman of the PTFPR who had since absconded from the country was in 2012 accused of leading a massive pension fraud scheme amounting to more than N100 billion.

Maina was saddled with the responsibility to sanitise the corruption ridden pension system by the then Goodluck Jonathan administration.

The Senate Joint Committee on Public Service and Establishment and State and Local Government Administration, had investigated the allegations against Mr Maina, indicted him and issued a warrant of arrest against him.

But the former Pension boss sued the Senate and the then Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, and thereafter went into hiding after being declared wanted by the police.

He was dismissed from the civil service for allegedly absconding from duty and attempting to evade arrest and charged to court.

He was on July 21, 2015 charged by the EFCC, alongside former head of service Stephen Oronsaye and two others with fraud. While Mr Oronsaye and the two other accused were in court and pleaded not guilty to the charge, Mr. Maina remained at large.

The fugitive pension boss in a statement last March congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari on his victory and promised to work assiduously to give the latter what he called “necessary support .”

But the former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress called on the Senate to make its findings available to the public.

He said: “Since it is an era of fighting corruption, all hands must be on deck. The Senate must reveal to the general public what its committee discovered during the investigation of former Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Pension, Abdulrasheed Maina.

“I have, however, prepared my lawyers to sue the Nigerian Senate, if its ad hoc committee fail to make public the outcome of its investigation in the next seven days. This is necessary for the nation, Nigeria to know who are her real enemies and those who have served her diligently,” Timi Frank argued.

The statement also condemned the seal off by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Lagos of certain property, belonging to the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki.
Frank claimed the action was part of a purely orchestrated plot to victimise perceived political enemies of the APC led administration.

“These same houses were the reason the Senate President was earlier investigated by the same EFCC and later dragged to the Code of Conduct Tribunal, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Nigeria where Senator Bukola Saraki was discharged and acquitted. It goes to show that APC’s administration has shown that it is a lawless government.

“Nigerians at all level must speak up against injustices in the land. We must help the clueless government of APC in the fight against corruption. Political persecution should not be seen as fight against corruption.”

He equally cited the recent travails of the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as another case of political vendetta in the hands of APC government.

He accused the presidency of plot to humiliate and eventually remove the Emir of Kano.

“This is the reason why Ganduje ignored the exparte order from the court issued on Friday because he has the support and the backing of the presidency to remove Sanusi by hook or crook, dead or alive.

“If the Kano citizens and by extension, Nigerian citizens allow this impunity to stand, it means that the APC next level campaign of destroying institutions in Nigeria as can be seen with what transpired in the National assembly, the judiary and now, the traditional institutions which is the hope of the common man is becoming a reality. The next target is the religious institutions,” Frank stated.