Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Asokoro, has threatened to revoke the bail granted to Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team over what he described as persistent attempts to stall the proceedings.
The warning followed a failed bid by the defence to secure an adjournment on the basis of a hospital referral letter that did not disclose any ailment, prompting the court to lament that the case had made little progress in nearly four years due to repeated delays attributed to the defendant.
The judge frowned at the fact that the case has not gathered any momentum in the past four years as result of diverse antics of the defendant to stall his trial, despite all the opportunities being given to him by the court to respond to fraud allegations against him. The judge regretted that Maina’s antics “have stalled proceedings completely,” noting that the last time the defendant was present in court was four years ago and considered revoking his bail to force him take his trial seriously.
While refusing the defence lawyer’s request for the adjournment of Thursday’s proceedings, Justice Kutigi disclosed that he has got the commitment of the chambers of the defence lawyers to henceforth proceed with the trial with or without Maina’s presence in court.
With the trashing of the adjournment request, prosecution counsel, Francis Usani proceeded to present the 14th Prosecution Witness PW14, Gogi Mohammed, who began where he left off in his evidence-in-chief at the last adjourned date.
Led in the evidence-in-chief by the prosecution counsel, the witness, an investigator with the by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, disclosed that the investigative team’s visit to Kaduna revealed that “the first defendant used members of staff of the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, HoSF to siphon funds through payments of fictitious contract, allowances and biometric enrolment exercise for pensioners.
“In our efforts to discover where the funds were hidden, we discovered a certain relative of the defendant, one Maimuna Usman, who resides in Kaduna, who was a custodian of his assets. We went to her residence, somewhere in Gwando MSC Quarters. We arrested her and executed a search warrant on her residence and discovered titled documents, deed of assignments, certificate of occupancy of over 30 properties, located mostly in Abuja and Kaduna State. In the course of interviewing her, she disclosed that the documents were given to her by the first defendant,” he said.
Further in his testimony, he stated that, after interviews with real estate agents who sold the properties, the Commission filed for the forfeiture of the properties.
According to the witness, “Some of the properties were paid for in cash, particularly the property located in Jabi, Abuja. It was paid by Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina in cash in the sum of $2 million (Two million dollars); and another, located in Life Camp, Abuja, was purchased in cash at the cost of $1.7 million (One Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars). Another property, located in Katoru Road, Kaduna was purchased at the cost of N100 million and it was paid for in cash
