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updated 10:20 AM UTC, Dec 13, 2023

Return Of A ‘Fugitive’, Maina: Shocking Revelations Flood House Of Reps Ad Hoc Committee

Abdulrasheed Maina
Abdulrasheed Maina

Unic Press UK: A ‘fugitive’ Abdulrasheed Maina, who was reinstated in Nigeria civil service, despite serious allegations of corruption made against him, has yet to travel outside the shores of Nigeria since 2013,  said the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) according to a report by Premium Times, Nigeria.

The Premium Times also reported that the Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mohammed Babandede, during an investigative hearing Thursday by a committee of the House of Representatives, said:

“We have checked our records and we have not seen a single name of Maina pass through our airports since 2013 when he was blocked; so the record available to us shows that Maina has not been travelling. If he has been travelling, then it means he has not been travelling through an airport we can see. By law, if you pass through a border you are entitled to report to an immigration officer. So, if Maina has been travelling from 2013 till date, we don’t know. If he has been passing through borders he has not reported to an immigration officer. As far as we are concerned, Maina has not been travelling since 2013”.

In his statement to the committee during the hearing, the director general of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Daura, submitted that Maina was staying abroad at a time the Nigerian Immigration Service claimed that it had no record that the ‘fugitive’ had traveled out of the country. Daura said:

“The attorney general of the federation sometime in 2016 or 2015, because it was not through a formal document, placed a call to me when he was outside the country,” he said. He wanted me to advise him whether to agree to see Maina or not in that foreign country. I responded to the attorney general that he should accept to see Maina but he should not see him alone. He should see him with a third party which he did.”

In effect, a lot of questions about the credibility of the Buhari presidency, particularly the Nigerian Immigration Services and the State Secret Services in this instance, as both hold diverging opinion on whether a Maina was in the country at a certain time, or abroad.

Maina reinstated, then sacked by his collaborators?

The Nigerian government, which is under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, reinstated the former head of a presidential task force on pension reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina in October, despite the fact that Maina was sacked from the civil service in 2013 and was being trailed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Forces who wanted Maina to return 

The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, played a key role in the second coming of a ‘fugitive’ Abdulrasheed Maina. But, obviously, could not stand up with Maina returning to the ministry, given the deafening outcry of the Nigeria public to the news of the secret reinstatement of Maina. The office of the Minister of Interior retreated, blaming the Head of Civil Service in a series of statement on Twitter.

Another powerful public office holder who might have played a major role Maina short-lived return to the Nigeria Civil Service is the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who seem to have given the reinstatement of Maina some form of legal backing.

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