Abubakar Kutigi, judge of the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) high court in Asokoro, on Friday, expressed frustration over repeated
delays in the trial of Abdulrasheed Maina, insisting that the defendant must
appear and defend himself against the charges.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is
prosecuting Maina, former chairman of the defunct pension reform task team
(PRTT), alongside Ann Igwe Olachi, on a nine-count charge bordering on the
alleged receipt of stolen funds amounting to N738,612,019.99. The defendants
were arraigned in 2019.
The proceeding on Friday, which was scheduled for a
trial-within-trial, was stalled following an application for adjournment by
Maina’s new counsel, Emmanuel Wuyi, who said he had just been briefed on the
matter.
“My lord, the first defendant has been ill, and I understand
that this case has a history of adjournments. This is my first time appearing
before your lordship, being that I have just been briefed about this case,” the
lawyer said.
“I am asking your lordship for two weeks to enable me to
study the facts of the case, and I am even looking at resolving this matter
with the prosecution.”
Responding, the judge questioned the basis for the request
and pointed to what he described as a pattern of delay tactics.
“Two weeks for what? Everybody is ready; everybody is
tired,” the judge said.
“We want every party to have a fair hearing and do their
cases, but when there is an adjournment, he will go and hire a new lawyer, and
when we insist we will go on, you will now say you were denied a fair hearing.
“He has changed to another lawyer now, and I have lost count
of the number of lawyers who have appeared in this case.
“We know the substance, and the end will determine it. The
integrity of what we do here is critical and important.”
Francis Usani, the EFCC counsel, also opposed the
application, noting that the prosecution’s witnesses for the trial-within-trial
were present in court.
“My lord, only yesterday we were served with an application
for a stay of proceedings, an application on the jurisdiction of this court, a
travel application and an application for appeal,” Usani said.
“If he (defence counsel) has been able to file such
voluminous and bulky applications, it is assumed that the counsel knows the
case so that we can start, except he is going to withdraw these applications
and take a decision if he wants to continue with the trial-within-trial.
“I can give him the opportunity to watch the video
(statement recording video of the defendant), invite him to my office and let
him watch the video. If he sees anything, then he let us know so that we can
save the court’s time.”
Addressing the defence again, Kutigi pressed for clarity on
the strategy being pursued.
“How can you say you want to do this case, and at the same
time you filed applications of jurisdiction, stay of proceedings and so on?”
the judge asked.
“What do you really want? You have to decide on what we are
coming here to do on the next adjourned date.”
The defence counsel subsequently made an oral application to
withdraw the motion for stay of proceedings dated February 10, 2026, and
indicated readiness to proceed with the trial-within-trial on the next
adjourned date.
The court granted the application to withdraw the stay and
adjourned the matter to February 26 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.
Maina was recently released from the Kuje prison, where he
served jail time following conviction for pension fraud.
Earlier in February, Emmanuel Ekwe, media assistant to
Maina, claimed that the former pension task force chairman had slumped on the
staircase of his office and was hospitalised.
This excuse has been cited in
previous proceedings as part of explanations for his absence in court.
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