More than one month after the former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr Abdulrasheed Maina, found himself in yet another major controversy, he has shared his side of the story in an exclusive interview with Channels Television.
In the interview, Mr Maina claimed that he met with Nigeria’s Minister of Justice after President Muhammadu Buhari approved talks between officials and him. He also insisted that security agencies also cleared him ahead of the talks which were held outside the country.
“When this government came in, the President went and gave his note that ‘go and sit down with Maina. I have given you the approval’. They sat down with me after the security agencies cleared me of any wrongdoing,” he said.
During the meeting, he said he gave the Minister of Justice a document which aided the government in preventing the theft of N1.3tn.
“As soon as this current government decided to sit with me, and after sitting with me, I decided that ‘I will not leave you to go back to Nigeria with empty pocket, I’m going to give you something to put in your pocket’. And the Minister of Justice laughed, and said ‘what are you going to give us?’”
“I said ‘I’m going to give you guys a gift’. What is the gift? I gave him a document and said ‘Go here, here, here, here… there’s N1.3 trillion, they are going to steal it because they have been stealing it every year’.”
He said although the minister was shocked at his revelation and the amount involved, he did not believe that the document was authentic.
“When I gave them that, the minister thought it was not possible. When he got back, he realised I gave him a correct information.”
CHANNELS
