The Chairman Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Chukwuka Utazi has said that the senate is going to invite the Head of Service of the federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Eta, the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen Abdulrahman Dambazzau (rtd.) and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami to explain all that they know concerning the reinstatement of the fugitive Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Alhaji Abdullahi Abdulrasheed Maina.
Utazi who made disclosure in a television programme monitored in Lagos by our correspondent said that the senate had already constituted a committee made up of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the senate committees on Interior, Establishments and Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes to investigate the matter.
According to him,”We are already investigating, the senate had already constituted committee, I am part of the committee, the committee is made up of Interior, Establishments, Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, all of us are there, Chairman and Vice Chairman, all of us are looking into the matter.
“In fact, we are starting tomorrow (yesterday) because today we discussed about it among the committee chairmen, how we are going to handle this matter. So, we are looking at that and as Chairman of the senate committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, I have several other information, now that these people are joining me, I will bring all those information that I know to the committee, we look at it and try to find solution to it such that such thing will never reoccur.
“It is not late in the day, I feel let us first all established the fact of the allegations, we will get all that issue. We are going to invite all the people concerned, not just hearsay now, they will be there, we will be inviting the Head of Service, we are going to invite Dambazzau, we are going to invite Malami, all of them are going to appear before us and we ask questions with papers before us.
“When we look at all those things, it is no longer hearsay, we are going to find the issue because if this issue is allowed to fester, it will give serious blow to the anti-corruption fight of this administration and that is why it can never be swept under the carpet, never”.
On why the senate has not made any comment since the issue broke out, he observed that it was not the best thing to jump and start talking to the press when one was faced with a very important issue such as Maina’s case which had several dimensions to it.
“They have approached me several times, they called me on phone and I said, look, I am studying the matter because before this thing even blew open, I have a petition in my office to that effect, almost 40 page petition with attachments”, he said.
He however maintained that the issue of Maina’s reinstatement was an issue every right thinking person in Nigeria should be worried about adding that himself was worried considering the colossal loss both in lives and resources to the nation as a result of this development describing it as a slap on the faces of Nigerians hence the senate resolve to unravel the matter.
The Chairman added,” I am happy that the president is doing something already, the same way we handled Babachir’s matter, one hand cannot clap, while they are doing their bit through bureaucracy on how this thing happened, those of us in the legislature, with all information at our disposal, we are looking at it that at the end of the day, we will come out with a very tangible result”.
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