THURS, 03 DEC, 2020-theGBJournal-The Nigeria Police Force has extradited Abdulrashid Abdulahi Maina, former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT).
The runaway pension czar, accused of serial pension fraud was extradited today from Niamey, Niger Republic, the Police Force said.
The Nigeria Police Force confirmed his arrest on Monday in Niamey and said they were perfecting measures for his extradition to enable him face trial in pending criminal cases against him.
Maina was first exposed in 2012 by Federal government auditors from the office of the Auditor-General for the Federation following a damning report on the offshore biometric data capturing exercise for police retirees. The report described the exercise as a fraud.
The then pension czar and the Pension reform task team which he led was alleged to have embezzled N240 million and taken N140 million from the police pension fund for biometric capturing of police retirees in the Diaspora. The countries visited for the exercise include South Africa, Ghana, United Kingdom, and New-York, and Atlanta in the United States.
In APRIL of same year, Auditor-general ordered police affairs ministry to recover N177.23 million from Maina, money that was said to have been fraudulently paid for biometric capturing exercise of police retirees in the Diaspora.
Breakdown of the amount to be recovered include N127,085,880.00 paid as estacode allowances to 58 officers that failed to embark on the offshore biometric data capturing. Others are N3,788,881.00 paid to five persons that were not assigned for the offshore exercise and the N46.362 million fraudulent payment to 10 persons that used nine accounts in five different banks.
The directive was contained in the audit report titled “Audit Inspection Report Police Pension Office, Jabi Abuja. Examination of Accounting Records: January to December biometric capturing in Diaspora 2011”. The report prepared by the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation and referenced OAuGF/LISD/POL.PEN/VOL.1/15 was signed by F.N Anyanwu, director/legislature, judiciary and security agencies on behalf of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
Maina was drafted by the Federal Government to clean up the then stinking Pension Scheme but ended up placing N88 billion of the scheme into a private account of his younger brother, Danjuma Zubairu.
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