According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission  (EFCC) disclosed on that an ex-Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, is still on its wanted list for his alleged role in landmark N2 billion pensions biometric fraud in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

This is despite reports that Maina had returned to Nigeria and had been reabsorbed into the civil service and promoted.

The spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said this in a terse text message sent to our correspondent on Saturday.

Uwujaren, while responding to a newsmen inquiry, wrote, “Maina is still on the commission’s wanted person’s list.”

The International Police Organisation had last year issued a red alert on Maina, who was believed to have fled the country following his dismissal by the Civil Service Commission in 2015.

However, a source at INTERPOL told our correspondent on condition of anonymity on Saturday that he was not sure if the Federal Government was still serious about his arrest.

He said, “We are not investigating Maina. We received a request from the government, issued a red alert and informed our agents worldwide to ensure that he is arrested. If Maina is back in the country then probably the Nigerian government has withdrawn its request.”

It was learnt that Maina had written a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation accusing the EFCC of a witch-hunt.

It remains unclear if Maina has been cleared by the AGF, Abubakar Malami (SAN).

However, posters of Maina have been circulating on the social media indicating that he will be contesting the governorship election in Borno State in 2019 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.

Maina, who was in 2010 directed by President Goodluck Jonathan to look into the corruption in the pension system, was himself later accused, in 2012, of conniving with others to perpetrate a pension fraud to the tune of N100bn.

He was subsequently invited by the Senate but refused to honour all invitations. Instead, he sued the Senate and the police and went underground. The Civil Service Commission dismissed him for absconding from duty.

The suspect was arraigned in absentia by the EFCC alongside a former Head of Service, Steven Oronsanye, before he was later declared wanted by the commission in 2015.

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