The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) has applauded the Federal Government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for confiscating multi-million properties belonging to Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the Pension Reforms Task Team, over money laundering.
Debo Adeniran, CACOL’s Executive Chairman, in a statement issued by Toyin Odofin, the group’s Media and Publication Officer, said the civil service system has so much compromised and despoiled to the extent that a lot of those in the senior cadre workers in various sectors were looting and engaging in ludicrous speculative and dubious transactions for personal enrichment at the expense of the nation’s resources.
He expressed joy that the anti-graft agency had filed another motion to get an extended order to detain Maina, former Deputy Director with the Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension (CIPPO), who was reportedly handed to the EFCC by the Department of State Services (DSS) last week after being arrested in an undisclosed hotel in Abuja.
Adeniran stressed: “Unless emphasis is placed on severity of punishment to certainty of mere detention criminal offender, winning the fight against corruption would remain a hallucination. Following different corruption cases in the country, corruption has been the major setback of our system, ranging from money laundering, fraudulent act, bribery, and internet fraudster, etc.
He agreed with the EFCC’s belief that those properties which its operatives had traced in Nigeria and in other jurisdictions could not have been genuinely procured by a civil servant like Maina, no matter how long he would have worked in the service.
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Adeniran stressed that beyond the houses, EFCC had traced five companies, which it claimed Maina also used to engage in money laundering and had asked him to provide details of the money in the accounts of the firms.
The lists of the firms are Cluster Logistics, Drew Investment & Construction Ltd, Kongolo Dynamics Cleaning Ltd, Dr AbduUahi A. Faizal, Nafisatu Aliyu Yeldu and Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina.”
The CACOL boss added, “Imagine the immediate and remote implications of this particular heist, many Nigerians have been left licking their wounds due to the greed induced corruption of one man.
“Many who supposed to be beneficiary of the scheme have been wallowing in poverty, where they can’t boast of any assistance from government; meanwhile it is those entrusted with safe-keeping who are responsible for siphoning such money for their personal enrichment.
“This is why we enjoin the prosecution team to do a very diligent and meticulous trial to bring all known culprits to book by recovering all the looted funds and assets, while making them to cool their heels in prison to serve as necessary deterrent.”
