Former Pension Reform Task Team boss Abdulrasheed Maina sentenced to eight years in jail

FORMER Pension Reform Task Team chairman Abdulrasheed Maina has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment by an Abuja high court after being found guilty of several counts of corruption and money laundering.

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had arraigned Mr Maina and his son, Faisal, on charges of operating fictitious bank accounts, corruption and money laundering, to the tune of N2bn ($48.6m). Today, the case closed with Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja handing Mr Maina the jail sentence, in a final ruling.

In addition, Mr Maina's firm, Common Input Property and Investment also standing trial, was found guilty too.  Justice Abang also found Mr Maina guilty of inducing staff of Fidelity Bank to open bank accounts for him without conducting the requisite due diligence.

Furthermore, the court also found Mr Maina guilty of concealing his true identity as a signatory to accounts opened in UBA and Fidelity Bank by using the identity of his family members without their knowledge. These accounts had cash deposits of N300m, N500m and N1.5bn respectively.

Also, the court held that Mr Maina stole monies meant for pensioners as he could not prove where he got the same from. Justice Abang held that Mr Maina’s service as a civil servant his salary and emoluments will not amount to the monies in these accounts.