Alleged N2.1bn fraud: Your comments about me unfair, Maina tells judge

Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed
Maina, on Wednesday told Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High
Court, Abuja, that his remarks about him in the last proceeding was
unfair.

Maina, who spoke through his counsel, Joe Gadzama, SAN, at the
commencement of trial on the case against him filed by the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, sought for the case to be
reassigned to another judge.

Gadzama had stood in for Mr. Ahmed Raji, SAN.

The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that on October 25, Justice
Abang, while he was about to deliver a ruling on the bail
application filed by counsel to Maina, Raji, told the court
registrar to tell Maina to stop looking at him to enable him to
concentrate on delivering the ruling.

“Please, I don’t want the first defendant to look at me when I
am delivering my ruling, so that I can concentrate,” he had
said.

The court registrar, in an attempt to amplify the directive of
the judge, asked Maina to look at the prosecution who brought him
to court.

Abang, who was visibly unhappy with the court registrar’s
comment, cautioned him.

The judge later continued with his ruling, ordering the EFCC to
remand the defendant in the Nigerian Correctional Service Centre
and adjourned for October 30 (today).

However, at the resumed trial on Wednesday, Maina signaled his
intention to talk while in the dock, but Justice Abang overruled
him since he was represented at the court by Gadzama.

“I cannot allow the defendant to speak since he is represented
in court,” Abang said.

With the permission of the judge, Gadzama walked to meet Maina,
who was in the dock, listened to him as he muttered some words to
him.

When Gadzama returned to his seat, he told the judge what Maina
had told him.

“My lord, the first defendant told me I should tell the court,
on his behalf, that on October 25, he was before the court and
while the court was on, the court asked him not to look at him.

“And he wondered why he should not look at him since he was not
the only one that appeared before the court that day,” he said.

Gadzama said as a result of the judge’s remark, Maina told him
that his high blood pressure rose astronomically, and he felt so
bad with the comment as if he had been convicted already.

Maina’s counsel, therefore, told Justice Abang that his client
told him he would seek the indulgence of the court if the case
could be reassigned to another judge.

Responding, Justice Abang, who said he was uncomfortable with
the way the defendant stared at him consistently while he was about
to deliver his ruling that day, said, “I merely advised him not to
stare at me.

“I can’t allow him to stare at me consistently. I am in control
of my proceedings and I should also protect myself.

“If somebody is staring at me consistently, I should protect
myself because I did not commit any offence and I did not put him
there, neither did I assign the case to myself,” he said

The judge, who called the registrar to bear him witness, said
Maina’s case was not the first time he would be cautioning a
defendant on their conduct while in court.

“Registrar, you have been with me for the past eight months now;
is he the only person I have said this to?

“There was a day a witness was about entering the court dock and
he started adjusting his trousers. He looked at me and adjusted his
trousers.

“I told him, ‘Don’t adjust your trousers; don’t touch your
trousers again because I don’t know what is inside the
trousers.’

“So, I merely advised the defendant not to look at the
court.

“I am from a home; I have my wife and children. I have to
protect myself.

“Please, learned SAN, if you are asking for an adjournment, say
so. This is a court of record.

“Let us not allow sentiment to take over the proceeding of the
court,” Abang said.

However, when Gadzama asked for the adjournment of the matter
because he was only briefed the previous day to take over the case,
Justice Abang overruled him, saying the court would commence the
trial.

He then directed the prosecution counsel, Mohammed Abubakar, to
call out the first witness.

NAN reports that Maina is being prosecuted by the anti-graft
agency on 12 counts bordering on money laundering, operating
fictitious bank accounts and fraud.

However, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges leveled
against him by the EFCC.

(NAN)