Steve Oronsanye knew that something was amiss .And  the head of service of the federation carefully thought the best way to solve the problem was to set up a task force to uncover the racket.Fortunately, for him there has been a civil servant known for  performing surprisingly well in ensuring the pension of the ex servicemen under his watch are paid promptly.

Oronsaye’s man for the job is Abdulrasheed  Maina , the acting director of Customs, Immigration and Prisons  Pension Office, CIPPO in Gwagwalada , Abuja. Sources said official investigations had revealed that CIPPO is the best pension office in the country because it has perfected  seamless pension payment system  .A source claimed that ,CIPPO under  Maina  is so efficient that by the 25^th  of every month the pension of the beneficiaries is  lodged in their respective accounts.

It was because of this findings that  Oronsaye ,the  head  of service of the federation  invited Maina, CIPPO’s acting director  to his office. He was immediately saddled with the responsibility of sanitizing the pension in the office of the Head of Service.Maina thus became the head of the task force to sanitize the pension office there.

Newsdiaryonline sources revealed that in the course of his sanitization efforts, Maina discovered  what  has been described as ``a large scale fraud’’.Giving  an insight into how fraud was perpetrated in the Pension  office of the Head of Service an insider said, as soon as Maina progressed with his task, he discovered that instead of the 141000 (one hundred and forty one thousand ) pensioners on the payroll, he could only verify  70,000 (seventy thousand)  pensioners. In effect, a little over 70,000 ghost pensioners have been receiving payments from the office of the Head of service.

Sources said credit must equally go to Oronsaye for choosing to tackle this scam headlong .It was his resolve to put an end to the unusual things happening that made him bring Maina to into the fray.

Insiders said the sanitization process brought Maina on collision course with the fraudulent pension  cabal in the office of the Head of Service.It  was alleged that the cabal dangled a N250 million bribe to Maina.The bribe was meant to get him look the other way so that the cabal could  go on with business as usual.But he disappointed the cabal as he also bluntly rejected any attempt to bribe him.He rather chose to get to the root of the pension scam there.

An insider told Newsdiaryonline that what the cabal failed to understand is that Maina is really very upset with the way pensioners have been maltreated.He sees his job as some kind of crusade and he tells people close to him that he is not afraid of standing on the side of the truth and justice.

Newsdiaryonline sources also  said the cabal in the head of service has been settling unnamed lawmakersespecially at the House of Representatives who rather than engage in proper oversight are induced  to look the other way .Even Maina was alleged to have come under pressure from some lawmakers  who apparently wanted some sizable  chunk of the pension fund at CIPPO  in the past ,but the acting director of CIPPO is  said to have been in the black book of the lawmakers for refusing to play ball.

In fact Maina’s  refusal to settle a lawmaker was said to be the genesis of   a strange  petition that suddenly emerged not long ago claiming  that pensioners at CIPPO are still  suffering. And they called for the sacking of the acting director.An unnamed  lawmaker from the House of Representatives  is said to be behind the plot to sack he because he refused to give out the huge sum of money allegedly requested.But the attempts to smear Maina hit a brickwall as the National Association of Paramilitary pensioners reportedly addressed a press conference where they disowned the petition  against the acting director of CIPPO.

This press conference by paramilitary pensioners was said to have drawn the ire of a prominent member of the House of Representatives who is now being  accused of giving N500,000 to some people in Ibadan  recently, with a promise that an additional      N1million would be doled out to them .The N500,000N was meant hire buses to convey some people who would come to Abuja last month to protest against the verification exercise going on at the pension section of the office of the Head of service of the federation.They were to  say in the course of their protest that the verification exercise is a sham meant to witch hunt some people.

But there is more battle for Oronsaye to fight.Sources said although the task force the Head of service set up has finished its job, a  cabal is determined to ensure the report is ‘killed’.The report which is said to contain details of the pension fraud  has allegedly been hijacked by the entrenched cabal including some operators of the financial sector who have been  conniving to perpetuate the fraud all along.The game-plan is to ensure the release of the report is frustrated so  that after the imminent retirement of Oronsaye ,the report would be swept under the carpet.

A source however claimed that the anti corruption agents in the office may have been on top of the story.But when Newsdiaryonline inquired from a top official of EFCC last month, he said he was not aware of the scam yet.

Just as concerned Nigerians were thinking of how to ensure that the report of the pension scam could be made to see the light of day, Maina allegedly came under what sources said was a suspected  threat to his life.Suspected assassins using a Peugeot 406 allegedly attempted to kill him on a Saturday some time last month.At least two suspects were said to have been arrested in connection with the failed assassination attempt.``We caught two of them and they are being quizzed `` a source told Newsdiaryonline a few days after the incident in September.

Attempts by Newsdiaryonline  to speak with  Maina at the office of the Head of Service failed. When he was trailed to his office shortly before Nigeria’s 50^th anniversary celebrations, he was said to be holding a meeting.`` Calls  him from here before we get clearance to allow you upstairs,please understand with us’’, were the courteous words of the policemen on  guard downstairs. One of his aides who spoke on telephone  confirmed he was at a meeting and would not be available.Every other attempts to even speak with Maina by telephone failed.