Maina resurfaces, explains absence in Court

Embattled former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina has resurfaced in a video in which he was seen lying on a hospital bed after speculations that he may have evaded justice following his absence in court last week.

Maina, who was first arraigned by the EFCC on October 25, 2019 on a 12-count charge has not been physically present for his trials before Justice Okon Abang.

Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south, who is standing as a surety for Maina, had told the federal high court in Abuja on October 3 that he did not know the whereabouts of the former pension boss.

But Francis Oronsaye, Maina’s counsel, told the court that his client was at Maitama General Hospital receiving treatment.

Speaking from a hospital bed in a video which surfaced on Thursday, Maina said he is not trying to evade trial.

“What the doctors told me is that I’ll need at least six to seven weeks of recovery because it is a knee cap injury,” Maina said

He also said he suffers a constant rise in blood pressure which affects his head and makes him drowsy.

On the issue of asset recovery, Maina explained that he saw a report which stated that he would recover N10 billion, but he denied saying so.

“I never told anyone to go and say so. But it is something I can do. I did that during the Jonathan administration and we recovered N1.6 trillion as a committee and during this administration, I recovered N1.3 trillion,” he said.

“I can also do that for President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

“Imagine an administration that owes me N65 billion, which is five percent of my recovery of N1.3 trillion, now putting me up for trial over N2 billion. Do they think Nigerians are stupid? If it is true, then the same EFCC who is taking me to court needs to be joined as defendants in the case because all the security agencies were part of my team.”

The former pension chief, who was in hiding for almost two years, was arrested by the State Security Service last year.

He is accused of diverting N100bn of pension funds and is also facing trial for alleged money laundering. He is being prosecuted by the EFCC and accused of operating fictitious accounts and carrying out fraudulent activities.