N2.3bn fraud: Maina bags eight years imprisonment after attempts to abscond fail
…As trial opens on former NSITF Boss’ N3bn fraud
By Moses Adeniyi
A judgment delivered by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, convicted and sentenced former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT, Mr Abdulrasheed Maina, to eight years in prison for money laundering.
The judgment came after Maina’s attempt to evade justice was stalled after he was successfully found again and repatriated to the Country from Niger where he attempted to seek refuge.
In the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/256/2019, the EFCC had alleged that Maina used 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.
The Monday Judgment found Maina guilty on all the 12-count charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) levelled against him and his company, Common Input Property and Investment Limited.
Justice Abang in the judgment held that the anti-graft agency successfully established the essential ingredients of the offences contained in the charge beyond reasonable doubt.
On all the 12-count charge Maina was found guilty, he was sentenced to various jail terms and was thus convicted for three years for count 1; five years for count 2; eight years for count 3; eight years for count 4; two years for count 5; five years for count 6, and eight years in count seven.
Others were three years in jail for count 8; five years for count 9; eight years for count 10; three years for count 11 and three years for count 12.
However, while he was found guilty on the 12-count charge, the Justice ruled that the sentence would run concurrently, with effect from October 25, 2019, the date he was arraigned.
The concurrent verdict translates to the fact that Maina would only serve for eight years which is the highest sentence he bagged on all the counts he was found guilty of.
The court further ordered Maina and his firm to restitute about N2.1billion that was traced to their bank accounts, to the Federal Government, after which it ordered that the company should be wound up.
In addition, it ordered the forfeiture of Maina’s two choice properties at Life camp and Jabi districts of Abuja to the government, as well as the auction of a bulletproof car and a BMW 5 series car that was found on the premises of the convict.
Justice Abang stressed that though the law made provision for a maximum sentence of 14 years, he said he was moved by Maina’s plea for mercy.
According to the Judge, Maina stole over N2 billion belonging to pensioners, most of whom, he said, have died without reaping the fruits of their labour.”
“In my view, it is pensioners’ funds the 1st defendant (Maina) stole, and some of the pensioners died out of frustration,” Justice Abang said.
On the evidence presented in the case, Justice Abang held that the prosecution established its case that Maina purchased a property in Abuja with $1.4million cash without passing through a financial institution.
The Justice who faulted the roles of banks in opening the fraudulent accounts, held that it was established that the sums of N300million, N500million and N1.5billion which, according to him, were stolen by Maina from pensioners, were deposited in the accounts.
Maintaining that Maina could not explain the source of the money, he held that the convict, as a civil servant whose salary was N256,000, could not have legitimately earned the sums of money from his salary and emoluments even if he saved all his salaries for 35 years..
He therefore held that “the money formed part of unlawful activities to which the 1st defendant reasonably ought to have known.”
It would be recalled that in the course of trial, Maina who had pleaded “not guilty” to the charges levelled against him by the EFCC had jumped bail twice. He was recently arrested in Niamey, Niger Republic, where he had fled to, to evade justice, putting his surety Senator, Ali Ndume, on the heat of legal rod.
Following Maina’s breach, Ndume was briefly jailed for five days after he failed to provide the suspect, whom he had stood surety for. The development had led the Court to revoke Maina’s bail after his re-arrest from Niger until his conviction.
This was just as the trial of former Chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Ngozi Olejeme, charged over the alleged N3billion money laundering, continued before Justice Maryam Hassan of the FCT High Court Jabi, with the testimony of the EFCC, first prosecution witness (PW-1), Malam Salihu Dantsoho Sadiq.
It would be recalled that Olejeme, who was an aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, was arraigned before the court on October 21 on a nine-count charge, in which she was accused of abusing her office, receiving bribe, awarding contracts without due process, among others.
