Missing N195bn pension funds: Again, police fail to drag Maina before Senate

Posted by admin Latest Politics Thursday, December 20th, 2012

From ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI, Abuja

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar again, failed yesterday to produce Chairman of the Pension Task Team (PTT), AbdulRasheed Maina, before the Senate. Senate President David Mark had last Thursday signed a warrant of arrest on Maina which should have compelled the IGP to personally deliver Maina before the Senate Joint Committee on Establishment and Public Service and States and Local Government Administration.

Clerk of the Senate, Benedict Efeture, co-signed the arrest warrant. Heavy security ring cordoned off the Senate Conference Room 2.31 with policemen and officers of the Civil Defence Corps searching anyone entering the venue. Maina was invited for the seventh time yesterday by the Senate to explain how N195 billion pension funds were missing.

The Aloysius Etok-led committee waited for over 90 minutes expecting the IGP to present Maina before members in line with an arrest warrant issued by the Senate President. But Maina was held up at the MOPOL gate of the National Assembly, which is directly opposite the Federal Secretariat by two angry sets of protesters. Pro and anti-protesters of Maina besieged the federal legislature, disrupting vehicular traffic for more than four hours.

They carried placards, making it impossible to gain access into the complex. The Anti-Maina protesters urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately arrest him and called for the disbandment of his PTT. They contended that PTT “is of no benefit to pensioners.” But Maina’s supporters countered. They equally stressed that pension management under Maina has improved immensely and should be allowed to carry on its good work.

Also absent at yesterday’s sitting were EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) boss, Ekpo Nta, Head of Federal Civil Service, his predecessors – Mr Steve Oronsanye and Prof. Oladapo Afolabi, Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, Dr. Shuaibu Teddi and former Director of Pensions in the HOS office, among others. An exasperated Etok acknowledged the perseverance of and patience of the invited stakeholders but regretted Maina’s alleged refusal to appear before the committee.

“For the services under Customs, Immigration, Police Pension Office (CIPPO), I’ve seen your commitment; I’ve seen how untiringly you have been attending this sitting. We’ve been sitting and adjourning for the sake of making sure that he’s here so that we can give him (Maina) fair hearing because in the other pension areas, he said he didn’t have fair hearing. “We’ve been here; we’ve kept these people waiting for one hour and incidentally, the Inspector-General of Police is not here.

The Senate under the Senate President issued a warrant of arrest and directed the Inspector-General of Police to present and compel Maina to appear before this committee by 12 o’clock on the dot and we’ve been waiting here, and this is one hour, 10 minutes and we have not seen him. After due consultation, we have decided to adjourn the meeting.

And for today, I appeal to you; we are not going to waste your time and since we promised we want to give him a fair hearing, after due consultation with members of this committee, we decided that we will adjourn this sitting since he is not here…”, Etok said Co-chairman of the committee, Senator Kabiru Gaya, was amused, saying that while the Senate waited patiently for Maina, he was at the National Assembly gate entertaining his supporters.

Gaya said: “I have just been briefed by the police that he is at the gate addressing his supporters instead of coming here. We wanted him to be here by 12 noon so that we can correct the anomalies and he was not here by 12 noon. So, the committee will know what to do. Nigerians are watching, we are open and sincere; we wanted this on record; God knows we have tried…”, Gaya said. The public hearing was thereafter adjourned sine die (indefinitely).

-Sunwp_posts