Omoniyi Salaudeen
Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South Senatorial District, must surely be ruing the day he offered to stand as surety for the embattled former Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina, who has been standing trial for alleged complicity in the over N2 billion Pensions Biometric Scam in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, had walked himself into the trouble on the flimsy reason that they were both from the same constituency. And having got his finger burnt, he revealed that it took him six months of painful consideration to agree to be a surety for the ex-pension boss, adding that it was part of the cross he had to carry as Maina’s elected Senator. Hear Ndume: “It was a hard decision I had to make because I have a duty to represent the good, the bad and the ugly of Borno South.”
Low and behold, Maina truly showed the ugly side of himself. The unstable character is nowhere to be found. In his moment of deep introspection, Ndume would have wished he didn’t go that far. But it is too late. The accused he put down his life for has disappeared into the thin air, while the EFCC continues to look for him like a needle lost in a haystack.
The anti-graft commission is currently prosecuting Maina, alongside his son, Faisal and firm, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, on a 12-count of operating fictitious bank accounts, corruption, and money laundering to the tune of N2 billion. He was first arraigned in court on October 25, 2019 and had remained in detention until Ndume offered to stand as surety for his bail application.
Maina is now on the wanted list of the EFCC. A statement on the website of the operatives reads in part: “The public is hereby notified that Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina, former Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), whose photograph appears above, is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for offences bordering on Procurement Fraud and Obtaining by False Pretence. Dark complexioned Maina is allegedly complicit in the over N 2 billion Pensions Biometric Scam in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation. He remains at large, after charges were filed against his accomplices.”
For his failure to produce the accused in court, Justice Okon Abang had on Monday ordered Senator Ndume to be remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre where he had been cooling off until Friday when reprieve came his way following the approval of his bail application. But unless otherwise decided, he might possibly lose his highbrow Asokoro, Abuja residence, or part away with N500 million in the event that Maina fails to show up.
This is an avoidable dilemma in which Ndume has found himself. For throwing his weight behind the questionable character, he is paying the due price. Before taking the leap into the unknown, it is either that he deliberately feigned ignorance of the law or ignored advice of his lawyer. Neither of these is an excuse before the law court. No sentiment either.
Since the pension saga became a public concern, Maina, the dramatis personae in the theatre of the absurd, has been acting like a sacred cow, disappearing and reappearing with a toga of impunity. His activities became an embarrassment to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari when he made a sudden reappearance in the federal civil service and subsequently got promotion to the position of a Director in charge of Human Resources in the Ministry of Interior.
The controversy and public outcry that trailed his surreptitious recall is a familiar story. In the end, the then Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, quickly washed his hands off Maina’s re-instatement and blamed the office of the Head of Service for his re-emergence in government circle, saying: “For the avoidance of doubt, issues relating to discipline, employment, re-engagement, posting, promotion and retirements of federal civil servants are the responsibility of the federal civil service commission and office of the Head of Service of the Federation, of which no minister exercises such powers as erroneously expressed in the publication. Such responsibility is that of the Federal Civil Service Commission and/or the Head of Civil Service”.
A similar statement issued by Mr Femi Adesina, the special adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, had also exonerated the presidency from the deal, adding that “Buhari orders immediate disengagement of Mr Abdulrasheed Maina from service and asks for full report on circumstances of his recall”. That simply laid the matter to rest.
Subsequently, Maina went into hiding for almost two years only to be arrested by the State Security Service (SSS) and handed over to the EFCC. Even when he was charged to court, he has repeatedly failed to appear in court for the continuation of his trial.
He took the drama to a head when he reappeared with a broken limp, saying “I am not on the run and have not jumped bail as being speculated by detractors. I am on a hospital bed. I am nursing a serious knee injury and the doctor said I need up to six to seven weeks of recovery to be on my feet.”
With all these antecedents, one would have expected Senator Ndume to be a bit circumspect in handling Maina’s desperate search for a surety. But no, that was not the case. Rather, he stuck his neck into his trial and has had to pay dearly for it.
Already, Abang has ordered a bench warrant for Maina’s arrest anywhere he is sighted. To get out of the hook unscathed, Ndume, who is the surety, has to go all out to produce the accused; otherwise, he would forfeit his property to the Federal Government. According to the legal dictionary, a surety is a person who makes an appearance before a court of law during a bail application and pledges to have the accused person present at every set hearing date of a case against them upon release of the said accused person on bail.
By doing this, the surety risks losing some or all of the money he has promised to the court if the accused doesn’t follow one or more of the bail conditions or fails to show up in court when required. On this note, Ndume’s responsibility as a surety continues until the case is completely over. And in this case, it may take longer than expected.
Before he took a plunge into politics, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume had worked with Ramat Polytechnic Maiduguri as a career lecturer. In 2003, he was elected to represent the Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives on the platform of All Nigeria People Party (ANPP). He later got elected to the Senate on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC. At the inauguration of the present National Assembly, he contested against Senator Ahmed Lawan who emerged the President of the Senate.