Follow Us on Google
• Says he has appealed his conviction
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Abdulrasheed Maina was a Nigerian public servant who formerly served as Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Force. He was later arrested, prosecuted and convicted.
In this explosive interview after his release from jail, he bares his mind on issues bordering on his trial and conviction, alleged extradition, assassination attempts, and corruption by high profile officials among others.
You served as the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, under former President Goodluck Jonathan. Tell us how you got there
The main journey started in 2011, when former President Goodluck Jonathan, through the Office of the Head of Service, Stephen Oronsaye, asked him to check and find out which officer is trustworthy and efficient that can restructure a failing system. So Oronsaye inaugurated a technical committee headed a former Director General of National Pension Commission (Pencom).
After weeks of checking around, the committee found out that I did well and had a lot of ministerial recommendations and everything and it decided that I head that team. That was in 2011.
During that period, I had in my team, the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), an official from Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). In all, I had 65 staff of the EFCC. I had more than 25 staff of the Department of State Security Service (DSS); Nigeria Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); Public Complaint Commission; Nigerian Union of Pensioners. In fact, all the security agencies had directors in that team. It was a tag team saddled with the responsibility for us to restructure the system, not to work with money, but to structure the system and make sure that fake pensioners were weeded out of the system, and to make way for real pensioners who were not captured to be captured.
But before we even came on board, the Office of the Head of Service (HOS), had requested for N2.1 billion to do what they called verification exercise, which they usually do every three months. Now, they had an existing Pension Department already and there was a lady there who was Director of Pension. So she was the one in charge of all the Pensioners. There was a Permanent Secretary in charge of pension. Then Stephen Oronsaye was the Head of Service and they had a Director of Pension account, who makes payments, a deputy director of accounts was his assistant, and they had Chief Accountant and all that.
So, they had the pension department running. We were just called upon to come in and restructure the system, look at what they were doing, if it is not right, show them how to do it and ensure that we sort it in such a way that pensioners should stop suffering.
So, they had already expended the N2.1bn before I was posted there. So there was no issue of charging me for the alleged theft of N2.1bn. Rather, I recovered a total sum of N1.6 trillion and 237 properties, working with all the security agencies.
Let me tell you that while we were doing our job, we realised that the 7th National Assembly was part of the scandal. The then Accountant General’s Office and the then Auditor General office were all part of the scandal.
But sir, you were charged and convicted on all the 12-counts and one of the grounds was that you were guilty of concealing your true identity as a signatory to accounts, using the identity of your family members?
Thank you for this question. However, the answer is simple and straightforward. I was not a signatory to any account linked to pension funds. All the banking records are there for anybody to verify. And let me add that we never had any account in the name of ‘Pension Reform Task Team,’ it never existed. Rather, all existing pension accounts were opened in the name of the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation under the direct supervision of the Head of Service and I was not a signatory to any of them. The evidence is there. In fact, I have written a petition to relevant authorities, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the DSS, where I attached all relevant banking records. All the banks’ signatures, and the signature cards are there. So, if you go through the signatories of all these accounts, you will not see my name.
Did you tender all these documents in court as your defence?
Like I keep saying, I was never given adequate opportunity to prepare and put up a defence in court during my trial. Indeed, my trial was orchestrated by corrupt individuals who looked at what I was doing with my team as a threat. They made sure that I never got justice and fair trial in court. I was never given fair trial and opportunity to properly defend myself.
Look, let me tell you. The only thing fighting me in Nigeria is corruption; nothing more than that. I did not do anything wrong. I never stole any money from government or anybody. In fact, some too government officials, including a former Attorney General of the Federation and a former Chairman of the EFCC, are among those fighting me. They just went and recruited a trial judge and prosecutor to jail me.
During my trial, my lawyers were not allowed to talk. Three of my lawyers had on three different occasions written to the Chief Judge asking that the trial judge should recuse himself from my trial on account of brazen bias, but it was not granted. Anytime we come to court, he will only allow the prosecutor time to talk and as soon as he is done, he will adjourn the case. My teenage son was jailed for 14 years! What did he do? When I was in office, he was just 11 years old. A teenager. What was his crime? He was arrested, brutalised by SARs where he was dehumanized.
We are American citizens of Nigeria dissent. If we had reported our ordeals to the American President, it could have been a different thing. Let me shock you. Both the judge and the prosecutor have been rewarded with higher appointments above their superiors.
Did you appeal the judgment?
Yes of course and that’s why I don’t want to go into details for now.
You mentioned that some minister and others were behind your travails. How sir?
In 2017, I was in Abu Dhabi working in the office of the son to the ruler of Abu Dhabi as a consultant, after I left Nigeria to save my life. This was under the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari (of blessed memory). I was in the office doing my work when I was informed by the Chairman of Nigerians living in Dubai that a delegation of Nigerian government officials were in Abu Dhabi to see me. I was not even told that President Buhari was the leader of the delegation.
So, I told my family members and I went to Grand Palace hotel to meet them. Among members of the delegation were some serving ministers and a former National Security Adviser (NSA). They urged me to return to Nigeria to recover looted or stolen public funds, based on my previous work under President Goodluck Jonathan, where N1.6 trillion and 237 properties were recovered.
I initially refused to come. But after much pressure, I honoured the invitation and returned to Nigeria. On my return, we signed the whistleblower agreement in the office of the Atorney-General, in the presence of some lawyers and other witnesses.
So, working under that agreement, I helped recover N1.3trn for the Nigerian people and secured additional assets valued at $88bn. The terms were clear. It was expressly agreed that I would be paid 5 per cent of the recovered N1.3 trillion (N65 billion), as whistleblower and recovery fee, but to this day it has not been paid.
Instead, some officials demanded that the fee be shared, leaving me with 1.5 per cent, while they would take 3. 5 per cent. I rejected this outright.
I started asking simple questions about 237 recovered properties placed in government custody. Where are they today? Who is managing them? What has Nigeria gained from those properties? Instead of answers, I faced threats. That’s part of the problem I am having in Nigeria.
Going by the judgment of the court, you are supposed to be serving your term. How come you are not in Kuje Correctional Centre?
I have been out of prison for over a year now and Nigerians are wondering. I did not tell anybody because I am scared for my life.
How did it happen? Have you concluded your term?
That is not a question for me to answer. People who are wondering how should go to the Kuje Correctional Service and ask. It is their duty to keep people, whether rightly or wrongly. If a judge writes because of what he wants or was asked to do, they will keep you. If he writes the truth or not, they will obey it, so people should go and ask them. The truth is that I came out more than a year and I have been in my house. People don’t know because I did not want anybody to know. I don’t want to deal with anybody because I just realised that people are not just sincere and they don’t care about the progress of this country.
In the course of your trial, it was alleged that you jumped bail and was arrested in Niger and extradited. If you knew you were innocent of the charges against you, why were you running from justice?
You see, let me tell you the truth. I never jumped bail. This is part of the manipulation I am talking about. I was in my house in Abuja and you know I had a problem with my knee that needed surgery. I also have a growth somewhere inside the region of my face. Doctors from the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and National Hospital Abuja have run some tests on me, including X-ray and MRI. They said I need to do surgery or else, it can kill me. The pain was severe that I had to take something every night to be able to sleep.
I was supposed to go for surgery, but because I had no money for it. Doctors wrote letters accompanied by medical reports since 2022, that I need to go for surgery. All these were going on during my trial. Now, after I was granted bail, they don’t want me to go out because of the stringent bail conditions attached to it.
You are accusing someone of stealing N2 billion and you are saying I should bring N1 billion and a serving Senator as a surety. It means you are giving me bail with one hand and taking it back with another. That was what they did to me. It was on purpose.
Let me disclose this to you that a lawyer – I don’t want to mention his name – was compromised and was given N20 million to give me and my son out. At the appropriate time, I will write to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, because I have all the facts.
Now, going back to your question, I was at home trying to get myself when I received a call from a top government official in the Late President Buhari ‘s administration. Little did I know that it was all orchestrated. The caller said they would take me out of the country for surgery since I have two months adjournment in court. The person said his wife had a broken kneecap and was taken to the French Military Hospital in Niger and it was fixed. So, they were going to take me there with a government aircraft but I would pay for the aviation fuel. I said it’s okay.
I never knew that the lawyer was compromised. I told this lawyer about it and he said it was okay. I asked him that what about the Judge? He said there was no problem since I had two months adjournment.
I had to call my people to arrange some money here and there. I don’t want to mention the amount. So when that was sorted out, they took me to Niger in company of two security officers. Thank God, there were two Nigerian investigative journalists who were also in Niger doing some investigation on activities of insurgency, who saw us at the hospital in Niger.
Other News
At the hospital, I did my registration and they took my blood sample and other tests and everything and I paid. They said okay I should go and get a hotel and return to the hospital after two days. So the security personnel went back to the airport and flew back to Nigeria and I went to my hotel.
The next thing at night, I was taking my bath and my phone was ringing non-stop. When I came out of the bathroom, I saw more than 70 missed calls. I saw my mother’s missed call and I called back. She asked whether I had been arrested, because it was all over the news that I jumped bail and was arrested in Niger. I told her that nobody arrested me, that I was right in my hotel room.
At this stage, I called the people that brought me to send the plane to take me back to Nigeria when the news was everywhere that I jumped bail. But they kept turning me around. I would go to the airport and wait only to be told that no Nigeria plane is coming today.
The day they decided to send the plane, they took some journalists to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. When I arrived there, I saw that journalists were there. I was never arrested at the airport. In fact they gave me a Prado with a driver to drive me home. On that same day, I went to the office of the person that gave out the aircraft. That was how it happened. I never jumped bail.
You said in 2017, the late President Muhammadu Buhari led a delegation to Dubai to prevail on you to come back to Nigeria and help recover looted public funds. The question is, how did you get to Dubai when you were supposed to be working in Nigeria as Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team?
I left Nigeria towards the end of 2012, following threats to my life as a result of the job I was doing with my team. There were several attempts to kill me. In 2011, I went to see former President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa upon his return from a foreign trip to brief him on certain developments. On my way back, close to the Office of Head of Service, at about 9pm, the vehicle in which I was riding, a bullet proof vehicle that was given to me by President Jonathan as my official vehicle, they shot at me several times. It was a masked man. There was a vehicle with a particular colour of a security agency, close to the person that was shooting.
I reported the incident to the president and he assured me of adequate protection and asked me to continue with my work.
Then, one day, I was living in Kado as at that time. They followed me when I was taking my seven-year-old child to the hospital. But when I realised that two 406 Peugeot cars were following me and firing shots, I did not stop. I put a call to one of the task team members and reported the incident while driving. He instructed that I should drive straight to Police Force Headquarters at Louis Edet House, that he had already informed the officers at the gate. I drove straight to the place and that was how I was saved.
At that point, I told the President that I wanted to proceed on my annual leave of 30 days. But he only approved 10 days. Barely three days after I proceeded on my leave, the then Head of Service, with whom I had lots of unpleasant encounters over fraudulent transactions, and who was looking for ways to remove me, declared that I was absent from work without leave. He set up a kangaroo committee and before you know it, he said I was dismissed. Can you dismiss a Deputy Director on Grade level 16 just like that?
After consulting with my family about the developments, it was agreed that I should leave the country and join my uncle in Dubai. So I went to Dubai with my family to join my uncle and I started working in the Office of the Son to the ruler of Dubai as a consultant. That was towards the end of 2012.
Having gone through these encounters, what will be your advice to someone who wants to fight corruption in Nigeria?
You see, the person needs to wear a thick skin. Forget about even your informants, because most of them cannot be trusted. They will come after you and your family. There were multiple, documented assassination attempts on my life. No fewer than four. That was what they did to me and my son, Faisal. He was going to 10 years old when I served in office. He was dragged into a matter he could not understand. At 17 years of age, the vehicle he was driving in Utako was riddled with 57 bullets, simply because his father stood against corruption. Those vehicles remain available for inspection. No child should ever endure such horror. After it became clear that he survived, he was unlawfully detained by some EFCC officials. They kept my teenage son in dark isolation, and after many weeks of enduring their hardship, he was handed over to SARS. He was beaten, wounded, and brutalised under the supervision of a top police officer, then in the rank of a DCP, who was in charge at that time. He was still a minor.
Yet my son was accused of financial crimes allegedly committed in 2010, when he was 10 years old, and before my appointment as Chairman of the PRTT in 2011. While I was in custody, my life was endangered. I was poisoned. Cyanide was put into my drink. I survived by the grace of God.
But listen to me. If you don’t fight corruption in Nigeria, we can never develop. The fact is that, it is not the government, we are the corrupt people. But I have made up my mind to fight corruption with more vigour and to help recover stolen public funds. I have a lot of information but I don’t want to talk now. So let people just stay and maintain their lane before I expose them.
Going by your experience in court, what is your assessment of the judiciary?
Very interesting question. I have respect for the judiciary, most especially the Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Justices. When I see them in their silk and wig, I respect them. But my experience with some of them has changed my position. But there are still a good number of senior lawyers and judges in the country that are very upright and discharging their professional obligations without blemish, which I hold in very high esteem.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria who is also the Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) should see to it that judicial officers who have abused their oath of office are weeded out of the system. The NJC is doing a great job in that direction but they need to do more. The Nigerian Bar Association should equally support the NJC with disciplinary measures.
The Criminal Justice system should equally be overhauled to address some grey areas in the justice delivery system. People who are charged before the courts should be allowed adequate opportunity to properly defend themselves. Judges should not take sides with their colleagues in such a way that their decisions must be same whether rightly or wrongly. No, they should be independent minded and should base their decisions on facts and evidence presented before them.
Let me shock you. I have seen a situation where judges at the trial courts will go to their colleagues at the Court of Appeal to beg that their judgments are affirmed. The Chief Justice of Nigeria needs to do something in that regard.
Recently, the NBA Garki Branch in Abuja, honoured you with the Rule of Law and Courage Award. However, the national body through its President Afam Osigwe (SAN) issued a disclaimer on the ground that you were convicted for stealing, and that the award was morally wrong? What is your reaction to this?
The reaction of the NBA President is borne out of personal hatred or vendetta. It’s personal.
But the question is, does the NBA under his leadership have moral grounds to question my integrity? Let the NBA account for the N300 million they received from Rivers State government for the hosting of the NBA Annual General Conference before they can lecture Nigerians on morality.
I was not even aware of the award by the NBA. I did not even know about it. I came to the office and met some young men who introduced themselves as members of the NBA Garki Branch and they came to present me with an award for what they described as my exemplifying service guided by law and justice. I only wrote a petition to them and the Department of State Security Service (DSS), and others to see how they can assist me. When I gave NBA documents relating to the pension fraud, they were overwhelmed by what they saw. The documents are there in their original copies, including account openings and statement of accounts from various banks relating to the pension accounts. That is all I did.
Talking about fighting corruption in Nigeria, do you think the present administration of President Bola Tinubu is getting it right?
Yes in my own assessment, President Bola Tinubu has taken the right steps. Let me tell you why. The new tax system that he is implementing, he is connecting everything electronically. There is no way you can dodge certain things. And that is how development starts. When you network the systems under one platform, where Mr A cannot say he is Mr B because of finger prints. I am a technological person; that is why I am telling you that I believe in this government, because I have seen what he has done so far and the results of what is happening. Yes, people don’t understand when they talk about this tax regime. Yes, these innovations will hurt, but the damage that was done long before he came, if he doesn’t choose this path, then there will be problem in the future. But this networking that he is doing in all the services are measures to close linkages that people take advantage to steal money. President Tinubu has a plan of action, and I see that action going on. If that path is not going to work in the right direction, I will say it.
So this technology he is putting into the system, it is going to fight corruption down. But there is still more work to be done. I suggest the setting up of National Recovery Commission (NRC) where all recoveries made by government would be channelled there and then the account must be published every month. The account should be domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The President can appoint whoever he feels meets the qualifications to head the place. That is the next thing the president needs to do, to get rid of all this nonsense.
I have deep respect and regard for President Tinubu. He wants to genuinely fix this country. He is not looking for money. People are fighting him because he is achieving results. All these people ganging up against Tinubu is because he is achieving results.
What about the ravaging insecurity in the country? Are you in support or against US intervention in the fight against insecurity in Nigeria?
Yes, I welcome the US partnership with Nigeria to end insecurity in the country. People should stop having negative feelings about it. America is not coming to take over Nigeria. All these things are lies. The American government sees a problem and is working with the Nigerian government to fix it.
What is your plan ahead of 2027 in terms of politics?
I am not a politician and I have not identified with any political party. But I will soon join a political party. That is when Nigeria will know that yes, Maina has people in this country. Now they don’t know yet. By the time I come out, people would know that I can sway votes from two states.
When would that be?
Very soon.
As soon as February, March?
Very soon. I am not going to contest any position, but I am going to pull voting crowd in two states for a particular political party.
I won’t be surprised if that party is the All Progressive Congress (APC)?
Very soon you will get to know.
Are you backing President Tinubu’s second term project?
I like President Tinubu because he is doing well. He is going to fix the country.
