Pension fraud: Maina’s conviction is not enough

The trial of the former Chairman of the presidential Pension Reform Task Force (PRTF), Mr Abdulrasheed Maina, over monumental pension fraud recorded a significant milestone with his conviction by Justice  Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja last Monday. After over five years of floundering and dramatic accusations, investigations, prosecution, granting of bail, jumping of bail and re-arrest that impressed on Nigerians that Maina was invincible, Justice Abang handed down to him a banging conviction and 61 years in jail, to be served concurrently for eight years.  Maina was convicted on all the 12 counts filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The commission presented before the court a list of mind-boggling assets linked to Maina for which the accused could not produce evidence of how he earned them. They include cash deposits of  N300 million, N500 million and N1.5 billion in two Nigerian banks accounts; property in Abuja paid for with $1.4 million cash; 50 cars in Dubai; posh villa in Dubai; and  $2 million property in Jabi, Abuja. Others include  Colster Logistics belonging to Maina which received inflow of $400,000 in cash; Kangolo Dynamic, another company belonging to Maina with over N500 million found in its account, though the company has never carried out any service or contract; and several choice properties in America and the United Arab Emirates.

For Abdulrasheed Maina to have soiled his fingers in pension fraud is a paradox because former President Goodluck Jonathan gave him the national assignment as chairman of the presidential task force to reform and sweep the sector of fraud that had embarrassed government over the years. For instance, before Maina was drafted to head the task force, the EFCC had dragged the erstwhile Director General (DG) of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Mr N. Maysak, and other top officials  to court over a whooping N2.5 billion pension scam, part of some N237 billion stolen from the fund between 2005 and 2011. Maina was famous for having cleaned up the pension accounts of another government agency through the use of smart technology which detected ghost pensioners and weeded out multiple schemes used by civil servants to steal funds from government treasury in the name of pensioners. Shockingly, Maina, too, could not resist the temptation to loot the federal treasury.

We insist that the conviction of Maina and his son is too little for the huge fraud that has weighed down Nigeria’s pension sector and frustrated thousands of pensioners. Maina could not have stolen so much money from the system without the collaboration of top civil servants linked to the management of the country’s pension. For instance, a Senate ad hoc committee investigation pension fraud in 2017 revealed massive fraud and dubious collaborations intentionally designed to loot billions of Naira. In the fraudulent schemes,  banks were exposed as handy collaborators in the unauthorized and illicit opening of accounts in the name of government, and the changing/amending of  existing signatories, transferring funds, depositing  funds in fake government accounts and all sorts of dubious transactions. The ad hoc committee’s report was eventually killed. Even the EFCC’s investigation revealed the involvement of highly placed government functionaries in multiple embezzlement of pension funds. They included directors, deputy directors, heads of service, clerks, drivers and domestic staff of some government functionaries who masterminded the diversion and lodgment of billions of pension funds through illegal bank accounts.

We call on government to engage in a holistic and judicial probe into the pension scam as the fall of Maina is not enough to sanitize the corrupt system that has spread misery and death among pensioners. For those convicted of pension fraud, stringent punishment must be meted out.  Also, the issue of complicity among the private sector and banks in pension scam must be looked into and addressed. The fact that Maina may eventually spend eight years in jail (as the 61 years sentence would run concurrently) is like a slap on the wrist when put side-by-side with the consequences of the fraud for which he was convicted. No wonder, Maina waved cheerfully, without remorse, at the crowd, while he was being returned to Kuje prison after his conviction. Certainly, there must be a more stringent way of punishing those who steal the nation blind.