Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has challenged the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Mr Abdullahi Maina, to tell Nigerians those thieves that he alleged were surrounding President Muhammadu Buhari in his government and answer the corruption allegations against him as well as his fraudulent reinstatement.
Fayose described the Maina interview shown on Channels Television as explosive, saying he was sure that Buhari will look the other way just as he did on the allegation of award of $25 billion contracts without following due process made against the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Dr.
Maikanti Baru, by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, and many others.
In a statement on Tuesday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said he had again been vindicated on his position that the kind of corruption being perpetrated in Buhari’s government was unprecedented and mind-boggling.
He said: “The Maina challenge is another opportunity for President Buhari to prove to Nigerians that he is actually fighting corruption. But I am sure that since it again borders on his closest men, he won’t do anything.”
Fayose said it was important for Maina to wash himself clean of the N2.1 billion pension fraud that made him escaped from the country and earned him dismissal from the civil service.
The governor, who challenged Maina to name those in Buhari’s government that are thieves, noted that “There is no need waiting for the President to conduct public inquiry on the pension scam, Maina should just go ahead and tell Nigerians who the thieves among Buhari’s men are.
“Even after naming them, Maina should not expect any action from the President. Rather, he should be contented with satisfying his conscience and putting those Buhari’s men that he said are pretending to be saints in the court of public opinion.”
While maintaining his position on the self-appointed human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), over the allegation by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), linking the lawyer to a N1 billion property on Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja, Fayose said it was sad that Falana and his collaborators have turned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to their source of huge income.
“EFCC has become Falana’s daily meal. Falana and his collaborators live on EFCC. They have turned themselves to brokers of bail and suppliers of lawyers to accused persons while at the same buying seized properties at ridiculous amount.
“Even the likes of Madaki, who have retired from service, have been brought back into the system so that he can continue to help them to perpetrate fraud,” he said.
