The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has announced the arrest of two top Fidelity bank officials for allegedly assisting a former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr Abdulrasheed Maina, to launder N2.8 billion stolen pension funds.
Maina was alleged to have diverted the huge sums belonging to pensioners through a phoney biometric project with some highly placed government officials at the time, and with the assistance of bank officials, with some of the pension cash being reportedly traced to accounts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The bankers presently in EFCC’s custody, according to Punch, are Fidelity bank’s Group Head, Private Banking and an accounts officer with the Business Unit of the bank’s office in the Central Business District, Abuja.
Maina himself is however said to have been on the run since the EFCC filed charges against him for his alleged failure to account for billions of naira, alongside a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Steve Oronsaye.
The two officials of Fidelity Bank arrested by the EFCC are said to have been managing five proxy accounts for Maina just as the anti-graft agency is said to be going after another personnel of the bank in relation with the alleged fraud.
A document on the preliminary investigation by the EFCC reads in part: “The accounts, which have over time witnessed massive inflow of slush funds, include two corporate and three individual accounts.
“The first individual account opened in the name of Abdullahi Faizer had a turnover of N1.5 billion while the other operated in the name of Nafisatu Aliyu recorded a turnover of over N100 million.”
Story: The Nation; Punch
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