Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday pushed back against attempts to link him to the raging Maina scandal.

Mr. Jonathan said the fact that efforts are being made to link him to the return and reinstatement of Mr Abdulrasheed Maina underscored how “uncoordinated and rudderless” the Buhari administration had become.

“Are they saying it is President Jonathan that flew him back into Nigeria and promoted him in two levels ahead of where he was as at 2013 when he fled the from civil service?” Jonathan’s spokesperson, Mr Ikechukwu Eze, asked Wednesday night.

“They should stop insulting Nigerians or seeing them as fools,” Eze said.
Mr. Buhari has come under intense public backlash since last Friday when news of Maina’s secret return broke.
 
Maina was declared wanted by EFCC on allegations of courting billions in public funds for his own use when he headed the pension reform task force.

The pension funds scandal broke out during Jonathan’s administration (2010-2015), and the government took disciplinary steps against Maina by dismissing him from service.

Mr. Maina was an assistant director at the time of his dismissal.

The presidency, in a statement by Mr Garba Shehu Wednesday night, said top officials of the Jonathan administration benefitted from the funds Maina allegedly stole from pension funds.

Firing back within minutes later when reached for comments, Jonathan’s spokesperson said the Buhari administration officials should waste little time in bringing out any evidence of connivance between Jonathan and Maina if they have it.

“There’s no need to warn that they will bring evidence out or that everything will be revealed on a later date,” Eze said.

“They should present the evidence to Nigerians now.”

“The Maina family spoke about how he returned to the country and they made it very clear that Buhari officials were the ones that orchestrated his return,” Eze said.

Emerging details since Monday have pointed to the involvement of Attorney-General Abubakar Malami, the Federal Civil Service and the Ministry of Interior as playing critical roles in the reinstatement of Mr. Maina into the civil service.

It has also been confirmed that Maina was accorded top-level security detail by the State Security Service since he returned to the country months ago.

PT