DSS hands over Maina, Pension Reform ex-boss, to EFCC for prosecution

 

• Alleges son, 20, pulled a gun at operatives

 

BY OUR EDITOR

The Department of State Services (DSS) said its operatives Wednesday handed over Andulrasheed Maina, former chairman of Pension Reform Task Team, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for prosecution.

Maina was said to have been arrested on September 30, in a joint security operation led by the DSS.

His arrest, according to the DSS, was not without a fight as his son allegedly pulled a gun on the operatives.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had in 2017 declared Maina wanted for alleged complicity in the over N2 billion pensions biometrics contract scam in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, in a statement, said Maina was arrested at the Pennsylvania Avenue Hotel, Utako, Abuja, following a request by the EFCC to assist in apprehending him.

Afunanya said Maina was arrested in company of his 20-year-old son, Faisal, who unsuccessfully tried to resist the arrest.

“The lad even pulled a pistol against the security agents involved in the operation. He was, however, disarmed and arrested. He is a final year student at the Canadian University of Dubai where he is studying Telecoms Engineering,” he revealed.

The DSS said items recovered from the suspects included a pistol with live ammunition, a bullet proof Range Rover SUV, a BMW Saloon car, foreign currencies, a phantom seven drone and sensitive documents.

The suspects and the recovered items would be handed over to the EFCC for further investigations and appropriate necessary actions, the DSS spokesman said.

Afunanya said it was instructive to note that the operation was as a result of a renewed interagency collaboration among security and law enforcement agencies.

He said the Service had always subscribed to such collaboration believed to be important in national security management and hoped to sustain the initiative in mitigating the current threats against public safety and national critical assets.

Maina had been charged alongside ex-Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsaye, Osarenkhoe Afe, Fredrick Hamilton and Global Services Limited before the Federal High Court in Abuja on 24 counts, bordering on procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretences, in July 2015, but he absconded from the country shortly after.