A picture of President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly together with embattled former Chairman of Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, is currently circulating online.
Read also: DSS accused of shielding Maina from arrest
The picture emerged online in the early hours of Tuesday and was circulating on social media with suggestion that President Buhari was shielding Maina from being arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Also in the undated photo that was apparently taken after Juma’at prayers at the State House Mosque, is the Senate President Bukola Saraki, among others.
However, Senior Special Assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has debunked the claim that one of the persons in the picture is the fugitive in series of tweets on his verified Twitter handle, @garshehu.
The tweets: “There is a photograph all over the Social Media of President @MBuhari, Senate President @bukolasaraki and Hon. Ado Garba Doguwa Alhassan being mistaken to be the embattled ex-chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina.”
“Hon. Doguwa is the Chief Whip of the Federal House of Representatives, representing Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency of Kano State.”
“The Speaker could not attend the event because he is a Christian.
“Please be guided!”
Accused of N100bn fraud while he was Chairman of Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Maina was declared wanted by the EFCC in 2015 after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates in 2013 to avoid arrest and prosecution. He recently returned and sneaked into the civil service where he was early sacked after he went on self-exile, and was given double promotion from an assistant director to acting director in the Ministry of Interior.
