Nine years after the chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina was exposed to a monumental fraud that fleece huge pension funds the Federal High Court in Abuja Monday slammed an eight-year jail term on him having been found guilty of money laundering charges.
Maina’s fraudulent activities together with some others came to the open in 2012 in a large scale fraud that fleeced the pension funds, sending many senior citizens who worked but had nothing from their labour, to their early graves.
In a judgement delivered by Okon Abang, the trial judge, the court held that Maina stole over N2 billion belonging to Pensioners, “most of whom have died without reaping the fruits of their labour,” the judge said.
“I find the defendant (Mr Maina) guilty and convicted in count 2, 6, 9, 3, 7 and 10,” Mr Abang held.
The court had a month ago, jailed Faisal, Maina’s son who is still at large, after finding him guilty on all three counts of money laundering involving N58.1million in public funds.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Mr Maina before Abang, on October 25, 2019, and firm, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd.M
Naina was tried on a 12-count money laundering charge filed against him by the EFCC.
Part of the allegations against him is that he used his firm to launder N2 billion and also used some of it to acquire properties in Abuja.
He had pleaded “not guilty” to the charge
It would be recalled that Maina jumped bail twice in the course of the trial but was recently arrested in Niamey, Niger Republic, where he had fled.
Maina’s surety, senator, Ali Ndume, was briefly jailed after he failed to provide him and spent five days at the Kuje correctional centre before he was granted bail.
The EFCC in the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/256/2019, accused Maina of using fictitious names to open and operate various bank accounts, as well as recruited his relatives that were bankers to operate fake bank accounts through which illicit funds were channelled.
Details later.
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