FOLLOWING the extradition of Abdul Rasheed Maina, a former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) from Republic of Niger, a Federal High Court in Abuja has on Friday ordered his remand in Kuje Correctional Centre until the end of the trial.
Okon Abang, the sitting judge on the case made the order following an application by Mohammed Abubakar, counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Earlier in July, the Court had granted bail to Maina but he has failed to appear for the ongoing trial on alleged pension fraud.
Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force and INTERPOL expatriated Maina back to the country on Thursday to continue the trial.
Ruling on the EFCC’s application, Abang said a bench warrant had already been issued against him for jumping bail.
“The defendant is already on bench warrant having jumped bail. So he shall be remanded in correctional centre pending the conclusion of the trial.” Abang said.
The ICIR had reported that Joe Gazama, counsel to Maina in the pension fraud and Adeola Adedipe, counsel representing Maina’s company, Common Input Investment Limited have withdrawn from the case.
While Gazama withdrew on the basis of not being able to locate Maina, Adedipe withdrew on the basis that he is yet to be paid for his services and he is also unable to locate him.
Adaji Abel, a lawyer, who has now taken over as Maina’s counsel in the case prayed the court to adjourn the case.
Abel said the adjournment is to enable him to prepare properly for the trail
Consequently, Abang ruled in favour of the defence counsel’s prayers and adjourned the trial to December 8, 2020.
Maina is facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) over N2 billion money laundering charges and use of fictitious bank accounts while serving as Chairman of the PRTT.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94