THE High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in Jabi, Abuja, on Tuesday, adjourned the N738 million pension fraud trial of convicted Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina.
This was due to the failure of the officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service in Abuja, where he is currently serving a jail term, to produce him for the trial.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had, in November last year, jailed Mr Maina for eight years for money laundering involving the diversion of N2 billion in pension funds.
The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, had convicted Maina on all the 12 counts of money laundering filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja commenced just about a month before the ongoing trial at the FCT High Court started in November 2019.
In the case pending at the FCT High Court, the EFCC charged him and his co-defendant, one Ann Igwe Olachi, with nine counts of stealing various sums of money totalling N738million belonging to the federal government.
The prosecution alleged that the defendants stole the funds under the guise of payments for the contract for biometric enrollment of pensioners”, and payments for allowances, among others.
Some of the offences were said to be punishable under Section 317 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, vol. 4, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, 2007.
Mr Maina was absent from Tuesday’s proceedings and the officials of the correctional service who usually produced him in court for the case were also absent.
The trial judge, Abubakar Idris, referred to a letter of a hospital in Gwagwalada, Abuja, but did not read out the content of the document to provide clarity about Maina’s whereabouts.
The prosecuting lawyer, Attah Ocholi, and the defence lawyers, Anayo Adibe, representing Maina, and K.O. Balogun, representing the second defendant, said they were unaware of the letter. Mr Adibe said Maina’s presence in court was critical for the proceedings to go on.
In his remarks, Mr Kutigi requested the prosecution to communicate with the correctional service department over Maina’s whereabouts.
As a result, the judge adjourned the matter to April 27.
