Conviction: Appellate Court fixes February 8 to hear Maina’s appeal

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Wednesday, fixed February 8 to hear Abdulrasheed Maina’s appeal challenging the judgement of a trial court sentencing him to eight years imprisonment for N2 billion pension fraud.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Mr Maina before Justice Okon Abang of the Abuja Federal High Court on October 25, 2019.

Mr Maina is charged alongside his firm, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, on 12 counts of money laundering.

Mr Abang, on November 8, sentenced the former chairperson of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) to eight years imprisonment for money laundering offences involving N2 billion in a pension fund.

Mr Maina, not satisfied, filed an appeal at the appellate court challenging the judgement.

The appeal court slated to be heard on Wednesday was adjourned until February 8, 2023, over the inability of the appellant’s counsel to follow court guidelines in filing his suit.

The three-member panel headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani fixed the date, pointing out that the appellant must comply with the rule of the court.

He said the appellant did not comply with order 19, rule 3 of the court’s direction on filing, adding that the font size did not comply with the order.

“You can not comply with the rules of the court you go back and comply with it,” he said.

When the appeal was called, the appellant’s counsel, led by Olusegun Jolaawo, SAN, told the court they were ready to argue their appeal.

Farouk Abdullahi, EFCC’s counsel, equally told the court he was ready.

Unfortunately, the panel found out that the appellant did not comply with the court’s rules in filing the suit.

In that judgement, justice Abang sentenced him to various jail terms ranging from three to eight years, which are to run concurrently.

He ordered that the terms of imprisonment shall run concurrently beginning from October 25, 2019, when he was arraigned.

Justice Abang ordered that Common Input Property and Investment Ltd’s punishment be wound up and its assets forfeited to the federal government.

In the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/256/2019, EFCC alleged that Mr Maina used fictitious names to open and operate various bank accounts.

It added that he recruited his relatives, that were bankers, to operate fake bank accounts through which illicit funds were channelled.

EFCC further alleged that sums of N300 million, N500 million and N1.5 billion were stolen from pensioners and deposited in the accounts.