Presidency Blames Ex-President Jonathan, PDP, For Maina’s Reinstatement

The Presidency has declared that some influential government officials loyal to the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan were responsible for the reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stated this in a statement made available to journalists in reaction to a statement by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the matter.
The Presidential spokesman said the PDP had no moral right to level any accusations against the current government in respect to the matter.
He described Maina as one of the monsters created by the former PDP government which are still active long after the party was defeated in the 2015 election.
“Some influential officials loyal to the previous government may have been the invisible hand in the latest scandal that saw the return of Maina to the public service, despite being on the EFCC’s wanted list,” the statement read.
“Everything will be uncovered in due course. This just goes to show us the scale of corruption that this government is fighting. And, as we can all see, corruption keeps fighting back viciously.
“Over and over again, the President Buhari government has pointed out that the administration’s greatest problem is the mess left behind by the previous government. Maina is just one more example.
“Top officials in the PDP government, from sectoral heads, to those charged with responsibility for law and order received some of these billions of naira from Maina.
“We have all the transaction records and these are matters that the EFCC has been pursuing to ensure that they all have their day in court.”
He assured Nigerians that President Buhari was determined to get to the bottom of the impunity that led to Maina’s reinstatement.
THEWILL recalls that Maina was recently indicted over diversion of public funds worth billions of naira and was declared as a fugitive by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) four years ago as he fled trial for his corruption case.
However, few hours after Shehu’s allegation, Jonathan reacted to the matter, saying the fact that efforts are being made to link him to Maina’s return and reinstatement was proof that the Buhari administration is uncoordinated and rudderless.
Speaking through his spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, Jonathan asked if he was the one that flew Maina back into Nigeria and promoted him in two levels ahead of where he was as at 2013 when he fled the from civil service.
He made reference to the Maina family which spoke about how Maina returned to the country saying they made it very clear that Buhari’s officials were the ones that orchestrated his return.