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Alleged Money Laundering: Court Dismisses Maina’s Application For Bail Variation

  Advertisement A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed the bail variation filed by the former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task … Continue reading Alleged Money Laundering: Court Dismisses Maina’s Application For Bail Variation


 

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed the bail variation filed by the former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina. 

In a ruling delivered by Justice Okon Abang on Wednesday, the court held that Mr Maina failed to provide sufficient materials before it, to prove that he is unable to meet his bail conditions.

The court also rejected the Economic and Finacial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) request to revoke the bail granted to Maina.

This follows an allegation that he is planning to assassinate the witnesses and that the prosecutor was not backed with facts.

Maina had approached the court in January with an application seeking the bail condition granted to him asking that he provides two serving senators with landed properties worth N500m each in Maitama or Asokoro as surety.

Mr. Maina who is standing trial for alleged money laundering urged the court to drop the said conditions which he described as excessive and stringent.

READ ALSO: I Can’t Get Senators With N1bn Properties As My Sureties’, Says Maina

At the hearing of the bail variation application filed by Maina on December 6, 2019, the defendant’s lawyer, Mr. Afam Osigwe, said while his client had met other conditions, it had been impossible for him to get senators to serve as the sureties.

The court later varied the bail condition granted to Mr. Maina to one serving Senator or member of House of Representative or a Director in the Federal Civil Service who must attend all proceedings.

The former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) is being tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over an alleged N2 billion fraud.