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Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has sentenced a former chairman of now-defunct Pension Reforms Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, to eight years in prison for money laundering.
The court, on Monday, found him guilty of inducing staff of Fidelity Bank to open bank accounts for him without conducting due diligence and money laundering.
Delivering judgement, Abang found Maina 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.
Abang 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.
This formed part of the proceeds of unlawful act, the court ruled.
Abang found the accused guilty on all 12 counts and sentenced him to eight years imprisonment.
The judge said although the law made provision for a maximum sentence of 14 years, he was moved by Maina’s plea of allocutus — a plea made to the court by a defendant who has been found guilty prior to being sentenced.
The judge held that the sentence would run concurrently, with effect from October 25, 2019, which is the date of arraignment.
The court ordered Maina and his firm, Common Input Property and Investment Limited, to forfeit about N2.1 billion traced to their bank accounts to the Federal Government, after which the company should be wound up.
Also, the court ordered that Maina’s properties at Life Camp and Jabi Districts of Abuja should be forfeited to the government.
The convict’s bulletproof car and a BMW 5 series vehicle that was found at the premises would also be auctioned and the proceeds forfeited to the government.
Abang had in October sentenced Faisal, Maina’s son who is at large, to seven years imprisonment on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering.