Maina found guilty, bags 61-years prison sentence

By our reporter/ Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), was on Monday sentenced to 61 years in prison.

The sentence will, however, run concurrently for eight years.

Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja who handed the jail term to Maina, convicted him for stealing N2 billion meant for pensioners.

The judge expressed regrets that many pensioners died out of suffering.

Maina was convicted on count 2, 6, 9, 3, 7 and 10 of the charges filed against him.

He was also found guilty of concealing his true identity as a signatory to accounts opened in UBA and Fidelity Bank.

He was said to have used 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 added that Maina could not prove that the money in the accounts were not stolen.

Justice Abang also held that through Maina’s service as a civil servant, his salary and emoluments would not amount to the monies in these accounts.

He also found Maina guilty of purchasing a property in Abuja, with cash, in the sum of $1.4 million, which is above the statutory threshold of N5 million and without passing through a financial institution.