N2.1bn Fraud: Maina Fails to Reverse Eight Years Jail 

Alex Enumah in Abuja

Bid by former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, to set aside his eight-year jail term suffered a setback as the Court of Appeal in Abuja yesterday upheld his conviction and subsequent sentencing by a Federal High Court, Abuja.

A three-member panel of the appellate court in a judgement, unanimously affirmed the November 8, 2021 judgement delivered by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, convicting and sentencing Maina over an alleged N2.1 billion money laundering charge.

Dissatisfied, Maina had approached the appellate court to set aside the trial court’s judgement, claiming that the trial court erred in law when it found him guilty of the charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

But the appellate court in the lead judgement delivered by Justice Elfreda Williams-Daudu, disagreed with him and affirmed the various interlocutory rulings delivered in the course of the trial at the Federal High Court, which Maina appealed against.

Justice Williams-Daudu, who resolved the two issues identified for determination against Maina, held that he was not denied a fair hearing by the trial court and that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Justice Abang had on November 8, 2021, held that Maina was guilty of money laundering in the sum of N171,099,000.

The judge in addition held that Maina was guilty of concealing his true identity as a signatory to accounts opened in two banks – UBA and Fidelity Bank – by using the identity of his family members without their knowledge.

The accounts had cash deposits of N300 million, N500 million, and N1.5 billion.

According to the judgement, Maina stole funds meant for pensioners as he could not prove where he got them from.

Justice Abang also held that through Maina’s service as a civil servant, his salary and emoluments will not amount to the monies in these accounts.

The court also found Maina guilty for the purchase of a property in Abuja paid in cash in the sum of $1.4 million, which is above the statutory threshold of N5 million and without passing through a financial institution, describing it as a criminal offence.

Faisal, the 21-year-old son of Maina, was earlier jailed in absentia for 14 years.

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja found him guilty of helping his father launder N58 million.

The trial judge, Okon Abang, found Faisal, who once jumped bail like his father until the Interpol arrested him in the Niger Republic, guilty on all the three counts of money laundering charges preferred against him by the EFCC.