UPDATED: Pension Fraud: Court sentences Abdulrasheed Maina to 61 years in prison
NEWS DIGEST – Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday sentenced a former chairman of Pension Reforms Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina guilty to 61 years’ imprisonment but to run concurrently at 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.
In a judgement being delivered by Okon Abang, the trial judge, the court held that Mr Maina stole over N2 billion belonging to Pensioners, “most of whom have died without reaping the fruits of their labour,” the judge said.
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“I find the defendant (Mr Maina) guilty and convicted in count 2, 6, 9, 3, 7 and 10,” Mr Abang held.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Mr Maina before Mr Abang, on October 25, 2019, and firm, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd.
Mr Maina was tried on a 12-count money laundering charge filed against him by the EFCC.
Part of the allegations against him is that he used his firm to launder N2 billion and also used some of it to acquire properties in Abuja.
He had pleaded “not guilty” to the charges.
In the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/256/2019, EFCC alleged that Maina used fictitious names to open and operate various bank accounts, as well as recruited his relatives that were bankers to operate fake bank accounts through which illicit funds were channelled.
