Abdulrasheed Maina, the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), was arrested hiding in a budget hotel in the capital of Niger Republic by Interpol agents, Dateline Nigeria has exclusively gathered.
Multiple security sources in Niamey disclosed that the former pension boss, who was extradited to Nigeria today, had lodged in two different hotels after his arrival in the country.
He first stayed at the 189-room Raddison Blu Hotel, Niamey, located in an upscale part of the capital housing the nation’s parliament and presidential palace, before relocating to Hotel Terminus, Niamey, 11 kilometers to the Diori Hamani International Airport, they revealed.
Dateline Nigeria sources could not confirm, at the time of filing this report, if Niger was his intended destination or he was planning to jet out of the country.
Maina’s arrest in the neighbouring Niger Republic became public on Monday, with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) disclosing the following day that the process for his extradition to Nigeria had started.
The former pension boss, who is facing 12-count charge bordering on operating fictitious accounts, corruption and money laundering to the tune of N2billion before a Federal High Court in Abuja, jumped bail leading the court to detain Senator Ali Ndume, who stood as his surety, at the Kuje correctional facility in Abuja.
The senator was granted bail on Friday.
Security sources and journalists in Niger Republic did not give details about when or how Maina arrived the country but said he maintained low profile before his cover was blown.
Maina was extradited back to Nigeria through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Thursday.
The NPF spokesman DCP Frank Mba said in a statement that Maina was extradited having been declared wanted by a court over a pending criminal trial against him.
Mba said the team from INTERPOL Nigeria, led by the Commissioner of Police INTERPOL, CP Garba Umar, having completed the necessary documentation, flew Maina into Nigeria aboard an NPF Jet 5N-HAR, which landed at exactly 1417Hrs (Nigerian Time).
