Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Family of the embattled former Pension Funds Boss Abdulrasheed Maina, Tuesday’s evening decried continuous incarceration of their son saying, he should be commended and not persecuted.
The family’s Spokesman, Abdullahi Usman in a statement claimed that, Maina had helped President Muhammad Buhari’s administration in recovering N1.3 trillion from looters for which a promised 5% is yet to be paid to him.
To Maina’s family, persecuting him was more like protecting the real pension thieves in the country, “the anti graft agencies should rather work with Maina to secure convictions of the real pensions looters, some of who were yet to be identified.
According to Usman, “it has become necessary to draw the attention of the Nigerian public towards the unfortunate trend of persecution against Abdulrasheed Maina. This could kill the morale of those intending to give recovery information to support fight against corruption in the country.
“Maina has secured five court judgements in his favor that were yet to be enforced even against the EFCC which has been restricted from harassing him.
“It was evident that while Maina served at Customs, Immigration and Prisons Office, CIPPO boss, it was the best run pension office at that time owing to the software he developed at no cost to government.
“In 2012 while briefing the National Economic Council, Maina revealed that pensioners were denied payment in Nigeria not because there were no adequate funds budgeted for it, but due to systemic large-scale corrupt practices shrouded in secrecy and conspiracy of a sinister pension mafia that include Senators, Members of House of Reps and big shots in civil service.
“A pension reform task team was inaugurated by President Jonathan under the leadership of Maina with senior level leadership from ICPC, Immigration, EFCC, Police, NIA, DSS, Prisons, Customs, Accountant General’s office, Attorney General’s office, Public Complaint Commission and Head of Service’s office.
“The agencies represented in Maina’s team exclusively executed and handled recoveries and not Maina as an individual but he supplied intelligence and technical knowhow.
“All members of the task team are alive but none has been removed from office and none is  being persecuted or victimised with regards to pension funds.
“It is clear that Maina’s sin is that he insisted on blocking the leakage that led to the monthly stealing of N6bn from the Police pension office and N4.725bn from the office of the Head of Service respectively.
“Reflecting on the performances of Maina is necessary. Maina deserves better treatment. As a compatriot who  has sacrificed his life for the progress and development of the country, Maina deserves not to be condemned or persecuted but commended and rewarded.”