Chairman of Pension Wanted By EFCC

Mr Abdulrsheed Maina, the former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, was declared wanted by the EFCC.

Maina  was wanted for his alleged role in the fraudulent biometric contracts through which himself and former Head of Service, Steve Oronsaye, and two others allegedly stole over N2 billion of pension funds.

Maina was on July 21, 2015 charged alongside Oronsaye, Osarenkhoe Afe and Fredrick Hamilton Global Services Limited before a Federal High Court on a 24-count charge bordering on procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretense.

While Oronsaye and two others were in court and pleaded not guilty to the charge, Maina had been at large.

However on July 21 when the court heard the bail applications of the accused persons, Maina through his counsel, Esther Uzoma, told the court that he was not at large, claiming that the EFCC had never invited him.

Consequently, EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, pleaded with the court to prevail on the counsel to the accused person to produce Maina in court as the commission had no clues as to his whereabouts.

The court granted Rotimi’s prayers, yet Maina continued to shun court proceedings, leaving the commission with no option than to declare him wanted.

Wilson said that since the commission filed charges against Maina, more damning evidence had emerged on how the ebullient former PTT boss siphoned pension funds using secret accounts in a new generation bank in Abuja.

It will be recalled that two senior officers of the bank were quizzed two weeks ago.