The Presidency has dismissed the claim by the Maina family that the Muhammadu Buhari government invited their embattled son, Abdulrasheed Maina, back into the country.
In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, the Presidency described the claim as ridiculous.
The two-paragraph statement which was issued on Wednesday reads: “The claim that the Buhari administration invited the wanted Abdulrasheed Maina back into country is a freshly minted falsehood. Nobody should believe that.
“The family that made that claim simply wanted to be ridiculous. Please ignore them.’’
In a report on Wednesday, two members of Maina family threatened to expose the cabal at the presidency who they claimed were responsible for the attack on their brother.
Speaking with journalists on Wednesday in Kaduna, spokesman of the Maina family, Malam Aliyu Maina, who was flanked by Salihu Maina and Ladan Abdullahi, said the family was worried that the image of the entire family had been tarnished following the sealing of properties belonging to Maina by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
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They therefore threatened to take legal action on it as they had instructed their lawyers to take up the matter.
The family said Maina ran out of the country following threat to his life.
The family also spoke on the action of the EFCC over his property.
The family said: “You must have noticed the recent attempt by some cabal to ridicule and tarnish the image of the Maina family in the media, where our brother, Abdulrasheed Maina, has been blackmailed as a fraudster.
“The cabals have gone to the extent of marking our house in red paints with an inscription of E.F.C.C under investigation. The EFCC is wrong in their action because Abdulrasheed inherited so many properties from his late father in Kaduna and Abuja, some of them were built before he was born. So, how could he have acquired them fraudulently?
“The entire family of Abdullahi Maina is categorically stating that our son is not in any way a fraudster, rather he is a messiah who brought reforms into Nigerian Pension Scheme, whose effort saw the disappearance of pensioners roaming the streets of Abuja and other state capital in Nigeria.
“It is on record that Abdulrasheed Maina’s reform put to a stop the fraudulent withdrawals of huge sums from both the Nigerian Pension Board, the Nigerian Police Pension Board etc. Perhaps it is this noble efforts that made him enviable to the present administration when they came into power to convince him to come back and assist in its “Change” agenda.”
The family said the attack on Maina might be targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari and the office of the Attorney General too.
