Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday sentenced a former chairman of now-defunct Pension Reforms Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, guilty to 61 years’ imprisonment but to run concurrently for eight years.
The court had found him guilty of inducing staff of Fidelity Bank to open bank accounts for him without conducting due diligence and money laundering.
Delivering the judgement, Justice Abang also found him guilty of concealing his true identity as signatory to accounts opened in UBA and Fidelity Bank by using the identity of his family members without their knowledge.
These accounts were said to have cash deposits of N300 million, N500 million and N1.5 billion.
The court held that Maina stole monies meant for pensioners as he could not prove where he got same from.
Justice Abang also held that through Maina’s service as a civil servant, his salary and emoluments would not amount to the monies in these accounts.
The court further held that the prosecution (the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), produced essential evidence through witnesses called, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Maina was also guilty of money laundering in sum of N171,099,000.
This formed part of the proceeds of unlawful act, the court ruled.
Commending, human right activist, Comrade Israel Joe hailed the judgement delivered against the former pension boss, Abdulrasheed Maina.
Comrade Joe also commended the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for instituting a case against Maina.
He said, ”I also wished the victims are compensated for putting 35 years of service in government endeavours. They should not be left alone because the court jailed their oppressor.”
According to Comrade Joe, “The next line of action is that the government should still pay them(pensioners) because they didn’t appoint Maina but the government did.”
Meanwhile, Officials of the EFCC and that of the NCS clashed at the Federal High Court, Abuja on Monday, over who should take custody of the former chairman of the now-defunct Pension Reforms Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina.
