Maina Fingers HoS in N195Bn Pension Fraud

The N195 billion pension fraud is getting messier as Abdulrasheed Maina, head of the presidential team on pension reforms, currently on the run over alleged fraud and outright stealing of pension funds yesterday said that Alhaji Bello Isa Sali, head of Service of the Federation, has questions to answer on why 98 per cent of pensioners were denied their benefits in 2012.

Maina said in a statement that: “It is surprising to note that when the pension team concluded paper-work preparation for the payment of November, 2012 monthly pension, as usual, the PRTT (Pension Reform Task Team) sent it to the Head of Civil Service of the Federatiion, who usually approves the payment without delay; but could not attend to it, and with no official communication to date.”

According to him, there is what he described as “verifiable” evidence that there is so much looting in which his team had set out to correct regretting that the process of preparing documents for payments had been “desperately hijacked” by Mr. Sali.

Maina further alleged that Sali deliberately refused to sign documents completed by the Pension Reform Task Team, since November.

According to him: “As soon as the current Senate issues erupted, the pension team wonders why Alhaji Sali facilitated the hijacking of the payment which would ruin the Federal Government pension transformation agenda.”

In the statement signed by Olajide Fashikun,  PRTT media consultant, Maina also lamented that in the past three months, his team had been stripped of supervisory powers over pension matters.

“The unfortunate consequences of these actions are that Nigeria pensioners’ funds are being stolen through a remittal alert where a pensioner received bank alert whereas he is credited with nothing in his bank account, more than 90 per cent of these pensioners are out rightly denied pensions while about two per cent of them are paid only 10 per cent of their entitled pensions.

“With the current distraction of the Senate, the pension fraudulent activities have not only resurfaced, but it is bigger, bolder and more widespread and likely to be worse than those who are standing trial.

“Consequently, a whole new vista of pension looting era is back since November 2012.”.

Efforts to reach the Head of Service for his reaction to these allegationswere unsuccessful as at press time.

The Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Mohammed, disclosed last week that Maina had fled the country hence his inability to execute the warrant of arrest issued by the Senate.