ALAS, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission appears to have woken up from deep slumber to launched a fresh manhunt for Abdulrasheed Maina, former head of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms.

Maina was sacked from the civil service in 2013 and placed on the wanted list of international police by EFCC in  2015

Maina was secretly reinstated to the civil service and promoted despite being wanted for alleged corruption.

Premium Times reported that  the embattled civil servant was issued a letter of reinstatement dated October 2, by the office of the head of service of the federation.

Abdurahman Dambazau, minister of interior, earlier on Sunday absolved himself of any culpability in Maina’s reinstatement, saying it was done by Winifred Eyo-Itta, head of service, who also claimed that she acted on the directive of Abubakar Malami, attorney general of the federation.

The October 2, letter claimed that Maina’s case was reviewed and that a decision was taken that he be reinstated.

The same letter also gave his new posting as acting director of the Department of Human Resources at the ministry of interior.

The reinstatement was at the behest of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who gave a favorable legal advice on the case.

Malami’s spokesperson, Salihu Othman, however, said he was unaware of his boss’s role in the deal.

Irked by the news of Maina’s silent re-entry into the country, the EFCC leadership convened an emergency meeting on Sunday to strategise on the case.

A source, who was part of the meeting, said the commission’s boss, Ibrahim Magu, who was out of Abuja, when  the Maina story broke convened a meeting of operatives working on the case.

As part of the fallouts of the meeting, according to our source, operatives were detailed “to smoke out Maina wherever he might be”

Maina is said to be shuttling between Kaduna and Abuja, since he sneaked back into the country.

Aside the ministry of Interior, Maina’s new work place, detectives are said to have spread around the city, including a safe house that is said to have been offered Maina by one of the nation’s security agencies.

Also being closely watched by operatives are Maina’s many houses in Abuja, including one EFCC sources said he bought in June 2015 for a massive $2 million cash.

Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesperson, said Maina “is still a fugitive. We are after him”.

The EFCC is also said to be deeply angry at how someone that was put on the wanted list of INTERPOL could be helped by government officials to sneak back into the country and then rewarded with a promotion to higher office.

The commission suspects sabotage, according to a highly placed official.

Documents seen by our reporter show the many correspondences between the EFCC and Interpol on the request to put Maina’s name on the agency’s wanted list.

The commission first wrote the Inspector General of Police in November 2015, a few days after Magu assumed office, asking for Maina’s name to be flagged by Interpol.

However, the letter was declared missing by the office of the commissioner in charge of Interpol at the Force Headquarters, making the commission to make the request again.

On January 12, 2016, Interpol wrote to the EFCC again requesting for additional details to enable it publish the red alert. EFCC replied the letter, providing the details requested.

However, a search for Maina’s name on the Interpol website returned no record.

– Oct 24, 2017 @ 16:07 GMT |