- Home
- /
- /
- Article
Maina
By JUMOKE SANNI
The trial of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, continued on Thursday, February 5, 2026 before Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Asokoro with the judge threatening to revoke the defendant’s bail for employing multiple antics to stall his trial.
Justice Kutigi’s anger followed the presentation of Maina’s hospital referral in court by the defence lawyer, Mr Achibong and the lawyer’s request for adjournment as a result of the referral, which named no ill health.
The judge frowned at the fact that the case has not gathered any momentum in the past four years as result of diverse antics of the defendant to stall his trial, despite all the opportunities being given to him by the court to respond to fraud allegations against him. The judge regretted that Maina’s antics “have stalled proceedings completely,” noting that the last time the defendant was present in court was four years ago and considered revoking his bail to force him take his trial seriously.
While refusing the defence lawyer’s request for the adjournment of Thursday’s proceedings, Justice Kutigi disclosed that he has got the commitment of the chambers of the defence lawyers to henceforth proceed with the trial with or without Maina’s presence in court.
With the trashing of the adjournment request, prosecution counsel, Francis Usani proceeded to present the 14th Prosecution Witness PW14, Gogi Mohammed, who began where he left off in his evidence-in-chief at the last adjourned date.
Led in the evidence-in-chief by the prosecution counsel, the witness, an investigator with the by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, disclosed that the investigative team’s visit to Kaduna revealed that “the first defendant used members of staff of the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, HoSF to siphon funds through payments of fictitious contract, allowances and biometric enrolment exercise for pensioners.
More like this
