Senate accuses Presidency of shielding Maina

NIGERIAN pensioners’ anger and pain were apparently captured in the Senate Wednesday as the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly did not only accuse the Presidency of shielding the Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, but asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack him immediately.

Maina was alleged to have misappropriated about N195 billion of pension funds and the Senate has asked him to appear before it for an investigation. The anger of the chamber was aptly conveyed by Senate President David Mark during a motion on the subject matter moved by the Majority Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba.

Before putting the matter to question, a visibly angry Mark said he had allowed the matter being handled by the joint Committee on Public Service and Establishment and States and Local Governments to be fully exhausted and in the process, made several interventions to enable Maina state his own side but he took the chamber for granted.

“We have been pushed to the wall and the reaction from the chamber is the correct reaction. So, no matter the depth, because somebody talked about the depth of the Maina situation, nobody in this country will be left to go scot-free if he is associated with Maina,” Mark said.

“It doesn’t matter who is behind Maina. It is not for me to know whether somebody is behind Maina or not, but no matter who is behind Maina, we are not going to accept it.”

Disclosing the level of efforts the chamber made to give Maina a fair hearing, Mark said:  “Let me give you the genesis of why I took so long to allow that matter to be brought to the floor. First, for those of you who have been following Maina, he bought over the entire press and gave the impression that the joint committee asked him for a bribe.

“That is not a secret … and I say that he should be given a fair chance to come and explain himself and expose anybody here who asked him for anything. If we hurried over it, it could appear as if it is a cover-up and I didn’t want to do that.

“I called the two committee chairmen and asked them if they had been reading what Maina has been publishing in the pages of (news) papers. I also directed that they should invite Maina, go for a public hearing and get the media houses to be there and let Maina say in the presence of the media houses and before this nation who asked him for a bribe, and I think that’s fair. That was the basis for asking Maina to appear before the committee.

Mark continued: “Now, Maina wrote a petition to me along the same line, even though he was foolish enough, he didn’t sign it. He is a Level 14 or Level 13 civil servant. I didn’t bother so much about it because it is civil service procedure, because that was not the subject matter and the subject matter was serious enough. At least, to clear the name of the Senate, I told my Chief of Staff to call Maina and tell him that he must appear before the committee and clear himself.

“I also forwarded the petition to the committees for their reaction and their reaction was the he mismanaged certain amount of money and is refusing to appear before them. But Maina wrote another letter to the committee, saying that he had written a petition to me and that he was awaiting an outcome and again, he didn’t sign it. It was signed by somebody under him. That was to tell you the level to which he put himself.

“Whether somebody is behind him or not is a different subject matter entirely. But I got my Chief of Staff and he called him to say he must appear before the committee, but he also expressed fear that since he (Maina) wanted to expose the committee, the committee would be biased, and will harass and prevent him from talking.

“I said fine, the Deputy Senate Leader, who is Abdul Ningi, and the chief whip should join the committee when he appears before it. I gave him ample time to clear himself and carry his accusation to a logical conclusion, but each time he was to appear before the committee, he went to the press to give a press conference and on every occasion, I pointed it out to the two chairmen and of course the committee denied asking Maina for anything.”

Mark spoke further: “The point I am trying to make here is that giving him a fair chance, giving him ample time to defend himself is not a wrong thing and it is not a sign of weakness in any way. It is not. I believe it is fair and that we should follow the legal system and not just justice, but let justice be also seen to be done. That is justice in the true sense of it.

“When the committee finally came to me and said that Maina refused to come, I then signed a warrant and sent it to the IGP and I think it was the second day that Maina appeared here, hired people and was addressing them in the same vein that the Senate was not being straightforward with him.

“In one of the headlines, it was that the Senate was colluding with fraudsters to embezzle pension fund. I pointed all this out to the two chairmen on every occasion and said every time they called Maina, he must be put on camera; that it must be public; that this Senate is not a place where people will be asking anybody for a bribe.

“When I signed the warrant, Maina of course didn’t show up and then I called the chairman of Police Affairs Committee to go and warn the Inspector General of Police that he would be on the firing line if he does nothing about Maina. I think then they declared him wanted, but even after declaring him wanted, he was still talking. Yes, he was still talking and said he was in his house. I called the IGP this time and said Maina said he was in his house and he narrated what happened.

“He said he sent his men from the Force CID to his house and when they got there, Maina went out through the back door and they had laid a siege to the house. The reason I am saying all these things is that there are a lot of characters in this country who are just pathological liars and they are professional blackmailers.” 

“So, having gone through all these procedures, I think what we have done is not wrong. The Senate has given him ample time. Maina is just an individual who perhaps said more than he can manage and he has crucified himself. That is the bottom line of this. He has crucified himself. The Executive now has to choose between Maina and the Senate. That is the bottom line.

“If they choose to go along with Maina, fine, we will react accordingly. And to extend the hand of friendship is the correct thing to do because we must work together, there is no running away from that one. It is a test case. If Maina remains, then the Senate will react appropriately and I don’t think we are short of ideas nor are we short of what we want to do. We know the step to take.

“So, I want to thank you all for your contributions, we can’t enumerate the sins of Maina. They are too many and like Senator Adeyeye said, when God decided to give people manna, Maina just decided to be absent. There is no phrase that anybody has used on Maina here today that is not correct.

“Finally, let me emphasise that nobody in this country is bigger than our democracy. No one person in this country is bigger than our democracy. I have been extremely patient with Maina, very patient, very understanding so that when we react, Nigerians will appreciate the steps that we have taken. So, I don’t think that what we have done is out of place. We gave him enough time and he crucified himself.

“He is wanted by the police now. Whether the police are serious or not in looking for Maina is the next step we are going to take because Maina cannot be briefing the press somewhere and the police will say they cannot find him. Let me assure you that the Senate has the teeth to bite and it will bite when it is time to bite. Nobody can stop it.”

Moving the motion, Ndoma-Egba said the Senate’s joint committee investigating the matter made several efforts to get Maina to appear and explain his role in the Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Office (CIPPO) case but he refused to appear but rather to address press conferences.

All the senators who made contributions condemned Maina’s action and agreed that he be dismissed immediately and disengaged from all acts relating to public duty and should be investigated and prosecuted as demanded by the motion.