Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has said the President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive for the immediate
disengagement of former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Mr Abdullahi Maina, is an afterthought.
He said the President only acted to save his face from the global embarrassment caused him by the outcry of Nigerians on the news of Maina’s reinstatement.
The governor demanded immediate arrest and trial of Maina as well as the dismissal of all those who perpetrated his reinstatement, which he described as fraudulent and shameful.
Fayose in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, likened Buhari’s anti-corruption fight to a situation where “Satan is calling Judas Iscariot a sinner.”
He said he had been vindicated because he warned Nigerians before now that the kind of corruption that would be witnessed in Buhari’s government would be unprecedented.
“If Maina, who was declared wanted for corrupt practices by the International Police Organisation, after he was dismissed from office by the Civil Service Commission in 2013 for allegedly committing N2.1bn pension fraud while in office, could be secretly reinstated and even promoted without writing the required civil service promotion examination, no one should be in doubt any longer that Buhari is not fighting any corruption.
“Even the former Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, who was accused of corruption by the Senate, removed from office unceremoniously and declared wanted is now the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Special Fraud Unit, Ikoyi, Lagos.
“When the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu raised allegation of award of $25bn contracts without following due process against the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, the Presidency was the one that defended him (Baru).
“Also, President Buhari has refused to act on the report of the committee that investigated the $43m discovered in an apartment at Osbourne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, despite that Nigerians have been asking him to act on it.
“Even the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu was indicted of corruption by the Department of State Service and all that was done by President Buhari was to ask the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to investigate the DSS report. Up till today, nothing has been heard about it and Magu, despite his rejection by the Senate, is still acting as the EFCC chairman.
“It was also under this government of Buhari that Ahmed Gambo Saleh; the Supreme Court Registrar was indicted and put on trial for alleged over N2bn fraud. The case against Gambo Saleh was withdrawn almost immediately, and he has been appointed the Secretary of the National Judicial Council. Not only that, he was made the Secretary of the Corruption and Financial Crime Cases Trial Monitoring Committee, headed by Retired Justice Isa Ayo Salami.”
