EFCC Staff Are Pension Thieves, Maina Insists

The embattled former Chairman of the defunct Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina has denied naming the Chairman of the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee Probing his Reinstatement, Senator Emmanuel Paulker (Bayelsa), in the list of those who re-looted properties recovered from pension thieves.
Maina, in a statement by his spokesman, Mohammed Sabo, said he had neither mentioned Paulker nor ever met with the said senator.
The ex-pension boss said the report was a cheap blackmail targeted at creating discord between him and the senator.
Paulker had during a Senate plenary, last week, sought the mandate of the upper legislative chamber to investigate how the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) allegedly shared over 222 properties recovered by the Maina-led PRTT under its custody.
Few days after moving the motion, report went viral on social media that Maina named Paulker among those who re-looted the loots he recovered.
Maina’s spokesperson, in a statement issued last Saturday night, described the report as a blackmail coming as a seed of discord to alter Paulker’s good work and reputation.
He said, “Paulker has nothing to do with the pension funds and was never named anywhere in regard to pension fund.
“I strongly believe that it is the EFCC which has paid the media house to publish this and other false reports.
“We have instructed our lawyer to institute a legal action, within seven days, against the media houses for deformation of character and falsehood; we must see to the end of it.
“We are not unaware of how much was paid to them and others to thwart the National Assembly’s probe and to tarnish Paulker’s hard-earned image probably to incite him against Maina.
“I hereby urge the general public to disregard this falsehood. Emmanuel Paulker is not among the pension thieves.
“The pension thieves include the EFCC staff and all the beneficiaries of the recovered properties and cash from the 43 pension suspects,” he added.