BREAKING: Ex-Pension Reform Team Boss, Maina To Remain In Prison As Court Refuses Fresh Bail Application

According to SaharaReporters, the Federal High Court in Abuja has refused to hear a fresh bail application filed by former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina.

The vacation judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, held that the application was contentious and as such could not be heard during the court’s vacation.

He, therefore, refused to hear the bail application which was moved by Maina’s counsel, Mr David Iorhemba and returned the case to Justice Okon Abang, who has been the trial judge in the substantive case, to hear the bail application after the court’s vacation.

Andrew Ocholi, counsel for the prosecuting agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) opposed the application, saying he had filed a counter-affidavit and a preliminary objection to show that Maina was no longer entitled to bail, The Punch reports.

Maina is being tried alongside his firm, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, on 12 counts of laundering over N1 billion, among others.

They were first arraigned on October 25, 2019, following which Justice Abang ordered that Maina be remanded in the Correctional Centre at Kuje, pending a hearing of his bail application.

After perfecting his bail conditions, Maina was released from the correctional centre in July but had his bail revoked on November 18, 2020 after he jumped bail.

Maina had, on January 20, 2021 approached Justice Abang for another bail following his rearrest for jumping the first bail.

At a resumed trial in February 2021, he told the court that his leg might be amputated if not granted bail to have adequate medical care.

His counsel, Sani Katu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said his client was taken to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, because of his worsening health condition and the medical report was exhibited in the bail application.

The lawyer, who said that Kuje Correctional Centre where Maina was kept did not have the facility to attend to his state of health, added that if not granted bail, his leg might be amputated.

But Justice Abang ruled on February 28, 2021 that Maina’s bail application was without merit and that he failed to place sufficient materials before the court to convince it that he deserved another bail.

The judge held that after violating the conditions of the bail granted him earlier, Maina did not deserve to be admitted to bail again.