Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has declared Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina, the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, wanted again, barely eighteen months after he was released from prison having served part of an eight-year sentence for money laundering.
In a wanted notice issued on Wednesday and signed by its Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, the anti-graft agency said Maina, aged 61, an indigene of Biu in Borno State, is wanted over an alleged case of receiving stolen property. The notice did not disclose the value or nature of the property allegedly received by Maina, nor did it state when the alleged offence occurred. The EFCC urged members of the public with information on his whereabouts to contact the Commission in its offices in Ibadan, Uyo, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Benin, Makurdi, Kaduna, Ilorin, Enugu, Kano, Lagos, Gombe, Port Harcourt or Abuja, or through its designated telephone line and email address. Information could also be provided to the nearest police station or other security agencies, the Commission added.
The fresh declaration marks another chapter in Maina’s long and turbulent legal history, a saga that stretches back more than a decade. Maina rose to prominence as the head of the Pension Reform Task Team, a body established to clean up Nigeria’s pension administration. Instead, he became the face of one of the country’s most notorious pension fraud scandals. He was first declared wanted by the EFCC in 2015 after he failed to honour the Commission’s invitations, and he subsequently fled Nigeria. He was arrested in Niger Republic in 2019 and brought back to face trial. In October of that year, he was arraigned alongside his son, Faisal, on a twelve-count charge bordering on money laundering and concealment of proceeds of unlawful act.
In November 2021, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted Maina and sentenced him to a cumulative sixty-one years in prison, with the terms to run concurrently. The court found that he had stolen over two billion naira meant for pensioners and ordered him to refund one billion naira to the Federal Government. Justice Abang expressed regret that many pensioners had died out of suffering as a result of the fraud. Maina was convicted on multiple counts and was also found guilty of concealing his true identity as a signatory to accounts opened in United Bank for Africa and Fidelity Bank, using the identities of his family members without their knowledge. The accounts had cash deposits of three hundred million naira, five hundred million naira, and one point five billion naira. The court held that Maina could not prove that the money in the accounts was not stolen.
Despite the length of the sentence, Maina was released from the Kuje Correctional Centre on February 25, 2025, after serving about four years in custody. The Nigerian Correctional Service attributed his release to statutory remission for good conduct, explaining that his jail term was counted from his initial arrest in October 2019. The service said the decision was made in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. His release sparked public outrage, with many Nigerians questioning how a man convicted of such a massive fraud could walk free after serving less than half of his sentence. The EFCC, which had prosecuted him, did not publicly oppose the release at the time, but the Commission’s decision to declare him wanted again suggests that its investigations into his activities were far from concluded.
The latest wanted notice specifically identifies the allegation for which Maina is currently sought as receiving stolen properties. That charge is distinct from the money laundering offences for which he was previously convicted. Receiving stolen property under Nigerian law typically involves knowingly accepting or retaining property that has been obtained through criminal means. The Commission’s decision to pursue this charge suggests that its investigators have uncovered evidence linking Maina to assets or funds believed to have been stolen, possibly in connection with his tenure at the Pension Reform Task Team or through other activities.
The renewed pursuit of Maina comes amid broader scrutiny of his assets both within Nigeria and abroad. Investigations by the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Premium Times linked properties in the United States and Dubai to Maina, some of which were acquired between 2010 and 2013. A separate investigation published in September 2026 identified Maina among sixty-one current and former Nigerian officials, their families, associates and affiliated companies connected to 284 properties valued at nearly 271 million dollars in the United States. Those investigations have intensified pressure on Nigerian authorities to account for how Maina acquired such assets despite his modest official salary.
Maina’s case has also continued to generate courtroom drama since his release. He is standing trial alongside a civil servant, Ann Igwe Olachi, on nine counts of receiving stolen funds totalling seven hundred and thirty-eight million naira. In recent months, his repeated absences from court have stalled proceedings, prompting a judge to threaten revocation of his bail. He has also threatened to sue Premium Times for describing him as a pension thief, a move that drew further attention to his conviction and his refusal to accept the label. In February 2026, Maina slumped and was hospitalised in Abuja while attempting to access his office premises, an incident that raised questions about his health and his continued public activities despite his conviction.
For the EFCC, the fresh wanted notice represents a renewed determination to hold Maina accountable for allegations that extend beyond the charges for which he was already convicted. The Commission’s public appeal for information suggests that it believes Maina may be evading arrest or that his whereabouts are unknown. The notice did not indicate whether the Commission has filed new charges against him or whether it intends to prosecute him on the receiving stolen property allegation. For now, Maina remains a wanted man, a status he has held before, and one that has proven difficult to sustain in the past. Whether the EFCC can locate him, arrest him and bring him to trial on the new allegation will determine whether this latest chapter in Nigeria’s most infamous pension fraud saga ends in accountability or another cycle of flight and impunity.
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