Former Chairman of the defunct Presidential Task Team on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina has reopened arguments on his innocence over the alleged plundering of N195 Billion from recoveries made by his committee.
His demands followed recent revelations by the Senate Committee Chairman, Kabiru Gaya, who made a U-turn by stating that the money was never siphoned.
Maina while speaking to newsmen in Abuja said members of the task team deserve an apology from the Nigerian senate for smearing their names, and particularly from Senator Kabiru Gaya for telling lies against them and from the Federal Government for concealing the facts about the matter, even when they were aware the team members were innocent.
He further said that his case was more grievous as none of the members of his team suffered any form of public hatred like him, having been singled out for persecution because of the lies told about him by the senator, for which he was forced out of his job, and maligned severally over an issue that never existed.
“I was singled out and I suffered so much as a result of the false allegation,” he insisted, saying, nothing short of an apology and adequate compensation for all his sufferings can address his anger against a system he served dedicatedly all his life.
Maina maintained that,” it is really sad that the same man (Kabiru Gaya), who told the whole world that I stole N195 billion has come out to say that the money is intact in Buhari’s TSA account in the CBN. He must pay for destroying my character, integrity and the loss of my job. I was being haunted all around, and people who had confidence in me thought otherwise of me,” he lamented.
Recall that last Sunday, Maina told newsmen in Abuja that, Senator Kabiru Gaya and the Nigerian senate should apologize to Nigerians and particularly to those they wrongly accused of stealing the N195Billion, as people have been scandalized by their action and their reputations put at stake because of the alleged lousy manner the senate committee handled its oversight functions.
Similarly, a group, Nigeria Accountability Forum, NAF, had earlier stated in a release that Kabiru Gaya may be dragged to court should he fail to apologize to Maina and members of the Task Team, who he along with another senator Aloysius Etuk had allegedly misguided the Nigerian senate into destroying the character of Abdulrasheed Maina in particular.
