More sordid details have emerged as to the ignorable role Nigerian law enforcement agencies played in shielding the embattled former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reform, Abdulrasheed Maina from being prosecuted.
It was gathered that the secret police, also known as the DSS provided a safe house for him in Maitama area of Abuja under the watchful eyes of its guards.
It was also learnt that for months, Mr. Maina after sneaking back into the country received protection from operatives of the Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Service, SSS
Also, according to media reports, Mr. Maina’s controversial $2 million house in Jabi, Abuja, was guarded by the police. It was further learnt that the circumstances that led to the purchase of the house is against the financial law hindered on money laundering.
According to Premium Times, Mr. Maina used bankers and other intermediaries to launder most of the money he allegedly embezzled from the pension funds in his care.
The process of purchasing the Jabi home, located at No. 10 Hamisu Musa Road, followed a similar pattern.
EFCC officials said both the buyer and the seller contravened provisions of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act by transacting in cash, given the amount involved.
Investigators, who traced the land documents at the Abuja Geographic Information System, AGIS, found that the new title documents were collected by an official of Guarantee Trust Bank.
Investigators later found that the man had resigned his post from the bank and disappeared.
It was said Mr. Maina, who paid for the house in cash, made a mouth-watering offer to the first owner, identified as Adamu Modibbo, a former managing director of Sigma Pension who initially resisted the proposal to sell the house, where he was living with his family, but was given what an official called an “irresistible offer”.