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| Abdulrasheed Maina, chairman Pension Task force |
The Senate Joint Committee probing the N2 trillion pension fraud was, on Thursday, told how the chairman of the Federal Government’s Task Force on Pension, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina, allegedly cornered the sum of N21 billion from the Police Pension Fund.
The committee, headed by Senator Alloysius Etuk, has, therefore, issued a warrant of arrest against the task force chairman who did not appear before the committee on Thursday.
An Assistant Chief Accountant in the Police Pension Office, Mr Toyin Ishola, who testified before the Senate Committee on Thursday, gave details of the alleged embezzlement by Maina.
According to Ishola, Maina allegedly distorted the existing Police Pension Account by transferring the sum of N21 billion into three different accounts domiciled in Fidelity Bank, (N8 billion), UBA (N3 billion) and FirstBank, (N10 billion).
The Senate committee chairman immediately ordered the committee’s secretary to issue a warrant of arrest against Maina.
The warrant, with reference number NASS/S/JCPI/WRT/IGP/W/01/04, which was dated March 8, 2012, was immediately issued, pursuant to Section 89 of the 1999 Constitution. It was signed by the joint chairmen of the probe committee, Senators Senator Aloysius Etok and Senator Kabiru Gaya.
While giving his testimony, Ishola further told the committee that the task force chairman used his brother to siphon some of the fund and that he had fixed some money in commercial banks, where it yielded him hundreds of million a month.
He said: “The task team, within three months period, unilaterally opened three accounts in different banks without recourse to extant financial rules and approval from the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Honourable Minister of Finance.
“It was gathered that the account in Fidelity Bank, Central Business District branch, was domiciled in the account of the younger brother of the chairman, Pension Reform Task team, named Danjuma Zubairu and the said amount was fixed since then with a monthly interest of over N100 million into the coffers of the perpetrators of the act.
“N3billion was deposited in UBA up till date with no proper documentation has been effected.”
Ishola stated that the task force team came into the Police Pension Office in December 2011, after having been mandated by the Head of Service to supervise the biometric data capturing of the police pension office within three months.
He said that the task force was expected to hand over the biometric data to the Director of Police Pension Commission, Mr Y.K. Adeyemi.
He stated that the task force, however, overshot its period of assignment and that the chairman engaged in frivolous and extravagant expenditures.
He stated: “Among these expenditures were the bogus expenditure of the conduct of the biometric exercise of the retirees in the diaspora, which he spent a whopping sum of N240 million to capture less than 20 retirees and for the local biodata of which over N220 million was spent.”
He also told the senate committee that over N3.6 billion was spent without any entry of such in account books.
Ishola added: “The chairman, Pension Reform Task Team, who always claims he is saving government money, has now embarked on frivolous spending without control or putting into consideration the reconciliation aspect of the office and also, disregarding the financial regulations guiding all government expenditures.”
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