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| Abdulrasheed Maina. |
Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team continued his court absenteeism on Thursday, February 26 and by so doing, aborted his trial-within-trial before Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory , FCT, High Court, Asokoro to determine the admissibility of his extrajudicial statements to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The EFCC is prosecuting Maina, first defendant,
alongside Ann Igwe Olachi, a civil servant on a nine-count charge, bordering on
receipt of stolen funds to the tune of N738, 612,019.99 (Seven Hundred and
Thirty-eight Million, Six Hundred and Twelve Thousand, Nineteen Naira,
Ninety-nine Kobo).
They were arraigned in 2019.
The commencement of the trial-within-trial was botched
at the start of Thursday’s proceeding when Maina’s lead counsel, A.I. Lemu,
SAN, informed the court that he was new in the case and did not even know the
charges against his client, and asked for adjournment of the sitting. “I am
coming into this matter new. I don’t even have the charges. I don’t have the
history of this case. I was briefed on the phone to take over the case,” he
said. He asked for two weeks' adjournment to get himself acquainted with the
facts of the case.
While noting that there has been a high turnover of
lawyers for the first defendant, Lemu SAN promised the court that he would see
out the trial. “Hopefully, I will be the last lawyer to appear in this case,”
he said.
The visibly angry judge in response threatened yet
again to revoke Maina’s bail and identified the new defence counsel’s antics as
attempts at making a mockery of his court. However, the judge in the interest
of fair hearing, gave the defence counsel the two weeks relief he sought.
“If your client cannot come to court, I will revoke
his bail and let them go and get him. If you don’t know the history of the case
go and get the records and I am not going to wait for you to do that. I would
not allow a senior advocate to come and make a mockery of this court. The last
time he appeared in court was more than three years ago. I am fed up with this
case. I've been in this profession for over 35 years. I have never seen a
case like this.
“I will give you two weeks to study the matter and for
trial-within-trial to commence. If he is not in court during the
trial-within-trial, I will revoke his bail.”
Justice Kutigi recalled that Maina was released from
prison on account of his two years conviction for money laundering on February
25, 2025, yet has not made himself available in court for his trial since then.
The prosecution counsel made two applications, one for
the court to strike out the objection of the defence to the voluntariness of
the statements of the defendants, since the defence team could not produce the
first defendant in court for the sub-trial and for the order of the court for
the first defendant to pay for the cost incurred by the prosecution in
transporting to court, the equipment for replaying the video recording of the
defendants’ extra-judicial statements.
The counsel for the first defendant on his part made
an application against the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the case, on
the ground that Maina has already been convicted and served out his jail time.
The prosecution counsel, while acknowledging the application, promised to file
his response at the next adjourned date.
The court adjourned the matter till March 9, 2026 for
trial-within-trial and hearing on the court’s jurisdiction on the matter.
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