Maina sentenced to 61 years in jail over ₦2B pension fraud

Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja 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, TopNaija reports.

Earlier today, 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.

It also ordered the forfeiture of Maina’s two choice properties at Life camp and Jabi districts of Abuja, to the government, as well as the auction of a bulletproof car and a BMW 5 series car that was found on the premises of the convict.

Justice Abang stressed that though the law made provision for a maximum sentence of 14 years, he said he was moved by Maina’s plea for mercy.