A presidential spokesman has described Abdulrasheed Maina as “one of the monsters’’ and mess left behind by the Jonathan administration to frustrate the fight against corruption by the Buhari government.
Garba Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, stated this in Abuja on Wednesday.
He, therefore, maintained that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had no moral right to level any accusations against the President Buhari administration in respect of Maina, the former head of the presidential team on pension reforms.
He emphasised that Maina was “one of the monsters created by the former PDP government, and which are still rearing their ugly heads long after the Party was soundly defeated in the 2015 elections.
“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.’’
Shehu noted that Maina was not the only member of the former government involved in the multibillion naira pensions scandal, but a man warmly ensconced in the bosom of power.
He said: “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.”
The SSA hinted that some influential officials loyal to the previous government might 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.
He, however, assured Nigerians that President Buhari was determined to get to the bottom of the matter of the impunity that led to Maina’s reinstatement.
“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,’’ he added.
NAN