The trial of the former Chairman of the defunct
Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina has resumed in
Abuja.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ensured
Maina was in the court having being extradited to Nigeria from the
Niger Republic by the Interpol.
Mr. Maina who jumped bail before his re-arrest in Niamey, Niger
is standing trial for alleged money laundering to the tune of two
billion naira.
He was re-arrested after he jumped bail and was declared wanted
by an Abuja High Court, however, while he was away, his trial went
on in absentia.
A witness on Thursday told an Abuja high court that Maina,
bought a property worth $2 million in the Jabi area of Abuja, the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The prosecution witness, Rouqayyah Ibrahim speaking before
Justice Okong Abang stated that the defendant also acquired
properties in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as well as the United
States.
Ibrahim, who is the prosecution witness nine (PW9) and a
detective of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
told the court that a prosecution witness, Adamu Modibbo, who
testified to the EFCC regarding the said Jabi property, reportedly
died of COVID-19 after his statement to the commission.
She added that about 32 documents, hard discs, and flash drives
relating to properties linked to Maina and his family and details
of some of his investments in Dubai and in the US were recovered
from him.
“Particularly in Dubai, investigation revealed that his company,
Northrich Company owned over 50 cars that were used for
transportation business and he owns a villa in a High Ground area
in Dubai.
“His wife Laila Abdulrasheed also owns cleaning services, called
Spotless and Flawless. We also recovered pay slips during our
investigation,” Ibrahim told the court.
She also disclosed that investigation proved that another of
Maina’s company, Kangolo Dynamic, does no business but that the
defendant created a bank account for it in which his name did not
appear anywhere on the account documentation even though he was in
control of all the deposits in it.
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The EFCC operative stated that the investigation showed that
Colster Logistics, belonging to Maina, had a Fidelity Bank dollar
account which had an inflow of over $400,000 from cash deposits as
at the time the company was investigated.
She said over N500 million was discovered in the account of
Kangolo Dynamic, within the years Maina was PRTT chairman.
According to the witness, in the course of the investigation,
letters were written to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), to
verify the authenticity of the driver’s license used in opening
some of the accounts; Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) for Maina’s
declared assets; Federal Civil Service Commission, Office of the
Head of Service of the Federation (HOSF), and Accountant-General of
the Federation (AGF), to confirm if Maina was still a civil servant
and for his payslips.
Also written was the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for
the tax returns of his companies and the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) for the registration documentation of the
companies and their annual returns.
After all the documents and written responses of the government
agencies were tendered as exhibits, the prosecution counsel, M.S.
Abubakar, prayed the court to foreclose the right of the defendants
to respond to the admissibility of the documents.
In his ruling, Justice Abang upheld the prosecution’s prayer,
noting that opportunity was offered to the defendants to be in
court to oppose the admissibility of the document in evidence, but
they failed to appear and also failed to engage counsel of their
choice.
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/12/04/maina-back-in-court-for-trial-after-extradition-from-niger/