ABUJA, Nigeria – The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the conviction and eight-year sentence of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), for laundering approximately N2.1 billion.
On Friday, May 5, 2023, a three-member panel of the court unanimously affirmed the November 8, 2021, judgment given by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, convicting and sentencing Maina.
Justice Elfreda Williams-Daudu, in the lead judgment, also affirmed the various interlocutory rulings delivered in the course of the trial at the Federal High Court, which Maina appealed against.
Justice Williams-Daudu, who resolved the two issues identified for determination against Maina, held that he was not denied a fair hearing by the trial court and that the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
On November 8, 2021, the Federal High Court in Abuja found Maina guilty of money laundering, and he was sentenced to eight years in prison. Justice Okon Abang ruled that Maina was guilty of money laundering in the sum of N171,099,000.
Justice Abang also found him guilty of concealing his true identity as a signatory to accounts opened in two banks – UBA and Fidelity Bank – by using the identity of his family members without their knowledge.
The accounts had cash deposits of N300 million, N500 million, and N1.5 billion.
The court held that Maina stole funds meant for pensioners as he could not prove where he got them from. Justice Abang also held that Maina’s service as a civil servant, his salary and emoluments would not amount to the monies in these accounts.
Maina was also found guilty for the purchase of a property in Abuja paid in cash in the sum of $1.4 million, which is above the statutory threshold of N5 million and without passing through a financial institution, describing it as a criminal offence.
Faisal, the 21-year-old son of Maina, was earlier jailed in absentia for 14 years. The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja found him guilty of helping his father launder N58 million.
The trial judge, Okon Abang, found Faisal guilty on all three counts of money laundering charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
