Former Chairman of the Presidential Pension Reform Team (PPRT), Abdurasheed Maina has insisted he is innocent of the 2.1billion fraud of which he stands accused . Speaking through his lawyer, Sani Katu, he said he recovered trillions of naira which was handed over to the EFCC and the agency can't account for the monies.
He also challenged the anti graft agency to an open debate where he says he will tell Nigerians the whole truth. He said: “In 2011, we stopped the stealing of N300 million daily from police pensions. Also, in 2011, we stopped the stealing of N1.04 billion monthly from police pension allocations. Same 2011, we were able to stop the yearly stealing of N52.5 billion at the head of service pension.
"It would interest you to know that between 2011 and 2012, the PRTT recovered cash and asset worth N1.63 trillion which has been with the EFCC.
"Nigerians are not stupid and cannot be deceived. They want to take our attention away from all these recoveries because they have repeatedly failed to account for them.
Our attention cannot be diverted away from about N4 trillion to a mere N2.1 billion, which is less of all the recoveries.
"Let’s meet at an open panel of investigation if the EFCC is truly straightforward. We urge the government to appoint an independent panel of investigation and see who will run out of Nigeria."
In a related development, an adhoc committee of the House of Representatives has issued summons to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris; Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita; Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). They are to appear before the committee from Wednesday, November 23 and Thursday, November 24, 2017 to shed more light on Maina’s scandalous reinstatement.