Pension funds: Court orders arrest, production of Maina

More trouble seems to be on the way for the embattled former Chairman of the Presidential Pension Task Force Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, following a renewed bid by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to track and fish him out to answer for alleged looting of pension funds running into billions of naira.

Since he was booted out of office by President Goodluck Jonathan in the heat of allegations by pension stakeholders that he had made away with pension funds, Maina has disappeared from public view, making it impossible for the EFCC to access and bring him to court for trial.

But after many failed attempts to pin him down, the EFCC formally approached a court and obtained an order authorising the agency to arrest and produce the suspect in court.

A copy of the court order obtained by Vanguard, yesterday, indicated that the EFCC had slammed the former PPTT with charges of criminal conspiracy, pension fraud and money laundering but was yet to come face to face with the suspect.

A Chief Magistrate of the FCT, Mr. Ahmed Usman Shuaibu, issued the warrant for Maina’s arrest. It was dated October 27, 2015.

EFCC has stepped up the move to bring Maina to justice following the arrest of two major bank officials who have been warehousing alleged looted pension funds for the wanted man.

The two top bank officials under interrogation by EFCC operatives have also given details of how they have been helping Maina to hide and manage the stolen pension funds worth N2.1 billion.

EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, told Vanguard last night that it was after the failure of numerous efforts by the commission to locate and serve Maina with the court orders that the court authorised them to declare him wanted.

Wilson said: “any suspect can be declared wanted once his where about is unknown, regardless of whether a charge had been filed or not.”