Maina Alleges Malami Is Guilty Of Massive Theft

By Adesina Soyooye

Abdulrasheed Maina,  former Chairman of the scrapped Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT, is out of prisons.

Maina was convicted in November 2021, by a Federal High Court, Abuja, on sundry charges which bordered on money laundering to the tune of  N2 billion. He was jailed for eight years and served his sentence at the Kuje prisons.

Maina was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in 2021. He pleaded not guilty to the 12-count charge but was found roundly guilty by the Honourable Justice Okon Abang who affirmed that Maina stole the sum of N2 billion belonging to pensioners most of whom he said “died without reaping the fruits of their labour.” He sentenced Maina to a total of 61 years on the 12-count charge which ran concurrently, and so added to eight years.

It is not known when exactly Maina regained his freedom from prisons. What is now known is that he has not come out quietly. He is full of fire. And he is roaring and charging.

One of those he has just charged at is the embattled former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN.

At a function in Abuja on Thursday where Maina was honoured, he accused Malami of monumental theft, of massive theft.

Malami is currently in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, for allegedly, financing terrorism. He was taken into custody shortly after  a Court granted him bail, along with one of his sons and one of his wives, for another allegation which involves about N217 billion Naira. Already, the EFCC has seized about 52 properties, allegedly, all Malami’s.

But Maina has described the whopping sum of N217 billion as laughable. He said it is ridiculous, a tip of the iceberg, not even upto a quarter of what Malami, allegedly, stole. He insists Malami allegedly stole Nigeria blind, and labels him a thief.

He called for an in-depth investigation into Malami’s activities because, according to him, Malami was involved in “large-scale theft of public funds and questionable asset recoveries linked to past administrations.”

He said: “Malami allegedly stole a lot of funds. What government has seen so far is not even one quarter, because my specialty is the recovery of public funds. I trace funds wherever they are, and that is why they have been after me.

He, also, alleged that more recoverable assets are linked to Malami, and questioned the number of properties already recovered.

He said: “We can recover these funds from Malami. They are more than what has been seen. What are ₦217billion properties?”.

Maina applauded the ongoing accountability efforts, and noted: “Yes, the government is doing the right thing. The government is doing the right thing because if we don’t start… there must be accountability, transparency, and the rule of law, which is what I see this government is actually doing.

“As against what the last administration has been doing, because all these things happened during the last administration. I don’t believe this could happen in this administration.”

For the records, Malami was the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice when Maina was prosecuted by the EFCC and jailed. The EFCC, then, was under the Chairmanship of Ibrahim Magu.