Chidi Samuel || The intrigue surrounding the reinstatement of Abdulrasheed Maina, the fugitive former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms continued on Thursday with the Director General of the State Security Services, Lawal Daura, informing the house of representative ad hoc committee probing the Maina saga that he advised the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to meet with Abdulrasheed Maina abroad.
The SSS DG, however, told the committee that he advised Malami to see Maina in the presence of a third party.
Daura said, “The attorney general of the federation sometime in 2016 or 2015 (can’t remember the exact day) because it was not through a formal document, placed a call to me when he was outside the country and requested me on a request he got through a source that Maina wanted to meet him.”
“He wanted me to advise him whether to agree to see Maina or not in that foreign country.”
“I responded to the attorney general that he should accept to see Maina but he should not see him alone”
“He should see him with a third party.”
According to Daura, Malami complied and met Mr. Maina in the presence of a third party.
Daura also defended the decision of his agency to provide security for Maina, stating that the fugitive former PENCOM boss approached the service with a letter alleging threat to his life and therefore requested for protection.
He said, “the letter was scrutinised and fears expressed by Maina were also to a large extent established”.
“Because of the right to life which is guaranteed by our constitution universally recognized, the case was directed to be looked into so as not to allow his life to be in jeopardy.”
The country’s top spy informed the committee that no agency, including the EFCC, wrote the SSS seeking to arrest Mr. Maina.
