How Maina, Others Stole N14bn From Pension Account, Witness Tells Court
The trial of former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, on money laundering charges continued in his absence on Wednesday, as a witness, Mrs. Rouquayya Ibrahim, narrated how he stole over N14billion from the federal pension account.
Testifying before the Federal High Court in Abuja as the ninth prosecution witness, PW-9, Mrs. Ibrahim, said investigations revealed that Maina pilfered pension funds, in connivance with the former Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
The witness who is an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, attached to the Anti Money Laundering and Countering of Financing of Terrorism, AML/CFT unit, said she was a member of the pension fraud task team that uncovered how names of fake pensioners were used to siphon funds by Maina and his alleged accomplices.
She said the EFCC was in 2010 invited to join in the verification exercise of pensioners, together with other organizations that included the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, and the Department of State Service, DSS. According to the witness: “During the course of that verification, my colleagues who were part of the exercise discovered a payment mandate for pensioners bearing names of several individuals for the total sum of about N94m and they decided to sample some of the names.
“On that list they discovered that two names on that list were fake pensioners “As a result of that, a report was written to the Commission by the team that went for the verification, recommending investigation of the matter.
“Based on that, the pension fraud team was created. We started our investigation by writing to all the banks in existence as at that time, about 32 of them, requesting for the pension account of the Head of Service.
“We also wrote the Accountant General of the Federation, requesting for the pension account of the Head of Service.
“Part of the request was that we also asked the AGF to furnish us with the approvals for the opening of those accounts.
“Part of what our investigation revealed was that the Head of Service at that time, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, was operating 66 illegal accounts. “After we received responses from the banks and other organizations we wrote to, our investigation was able to establish that basically, there were five modus operandi that the suspects who we were investigating at that time, where stealing monies from the pension accounts.
“In total, we were able to establish that at least N14billion was stolen from the pension account”.
The witness told the court that some of the ways Maina and his alleged accomplices stole funds was through making of payments to fake pensioners, through fake collective allowances, through nonexistent contracts and particularly biometric contracts.
She said the Defendant also made illegal payments to the National Union of Pensioners, NUP, and to another association called the Association of Retired Civil Servants.
“What we discovered was that the suspects, if the modus they are using is fake pensioners, they would require from the associated persons and companies to give them account details, pension funds would then be paid into those accounts, after which they would withdraw cash and hand over to the person that asked them to send the account numbers. “Or, they would pay certain companies for nonexistent biometric contracts or other nonexistent contracts.
In the same manner, once payment is made, the cash is withdrawn and handed over to them.
“Once we concluded the investigation, those who were indicted were charged to court. Some have been convicted.
“For example, trial of Mr. Oronsaye and others is presently ongoing before Justice Inyang Ekwo of this Court.
“Abdulrasheed Maina was initially part of that charge before Justice Ekwo, but because he ran away for six years, he was eventually charged separately after he was arrested.
“During the course of that investigation, we discovered that Maina who was the then Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team at the Head of Service, was deeply involved in stealing pension funds.
“One of the things we discovered particularly was the payment to a company called Zangee Technologies Limited, a company that was appointed by Maina to computerize the pension payroll, which received N153m for none existing biometric contract.
“The money was withdrawn in cash, converted to dollars and handed over to his brother, Khalid Biu, who was a staff of Fidelity bank, who then handed it over to one Ann Igwe Olachi, who was Maina’s Secretary.
“She is presently standing trial with Maina at FCT High Court in Gwagwalada. Zangee Technologies Limited is also standing trial before the court for their own involvement in the theft of pension funds.
“The same company ended up inserting about 15 fake pensioners into the pension payroll, which they were engaged to computerize. “We also discovered that Fedrick Hamilton Limited, owned by one Osa Afe, presently standing trial with Mr. Oronsaye, who received payment for non existent biometric contracts, handed over about N250m to Maina. “Our investigation further revealed the existence of six accounts with Fidelity Bank Plc. What we discovered was that out of the six accounts, five of them were linked to Maina.
“We discovered that there was no where on the account opening packages for these accounts, where the name, photograph or signature of Maina appeared on the documents.
“These accounts are: Nafisatu Aliyu Yeldu, Drew Construction Limited, Kangolo Dynamic Cleaning Services Limited, Cluster Logistics Limited, Fatima Aliyu. Maina also open one account with his name in Fidelity Bank. There was also another account in the name of Dr. Abdullahi Faizal.
