The ninth prosecution witness (PW9), Rouqayyah Ibrahim, a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, December 8, continued her testimony before Justice Okong Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, revealing how the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, received diverted funds in dollars even while he was a fugitive in Dubai and operated companies with N3 billion net worth that engaged in nothing according to statement released by EFCC on its official Twitter account on Wednesday.
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“We discovered that some of the funds, of which over 90 percent were cash payment and deposits into the accounts were withdrawn in cash and laundered by the defendant. Some of these funds were converted to dollars and handed over to the defendant even while he had absconded to Dubai”, the witness said.
Maina’s N3b Net Worth Companies Engaged in no Business – Witness
The ninth prosecution witness (PW9), Rouqayyah Ibrahim, a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday December 8, continued her testimony… pic.twitter.com/Jgh3BPR7vJ
— EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) December 9, 2020
The commission said that the witness also disclosed that the defendant purchased two houses in Abuja, at the cost of $3.4 million, one in Jabi, in the name of Common Input for $2million cash from one Adamu Modibbo (now late), using his account officer, Khalid Biu to pay.
The other, she disclosed was purchased in the name of one Dr. Abdullahi Faisal at the cost of $1.4million also paid in cash in the name of Khalid Biu.
“To be able to understand what really happened, we carried out a discreet investigation on the defendant, the reason for this, was to determine if the defendant or his associates companies had concealed incomes that were not accounted for and to determine if the defendant was benefitting or receiving money from that concealed income”, she said. Through the investigations, the EFCC, she said, discovered that Maina’s net worth ran contrary to his declared assets.
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“We were able to established that the defendant while being the Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team, recruited staff of the Head of Service, whereby he requested them to provide accounts, some personal, some corporate .including persons who were not staff of the Head of Service and money was paid into the accounts for non-existent biometric contracts, non-existent collective allowances and other illegal payments which were later withdrawn by the individuals after converting the sums to foreign currency before handing the monies over to Maina,” she said.
The EFCC, she further disclosed wrote to Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, and Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS concerning all the companies linked to Maina to be able to establish if the companies were indeed involved in any business, which yielded that the companies engaged in nothing according to the release.
“Our findings revealed that these companies were mere briefcase companies and were not involved in any business, let alone a legitimate one, even though the collective turnover in their accounts were almost N3 billion. Both CAC and FIRS confirmed,” said Rouqayyah Ibrahim
The witness further disclosed that Maina’ payslip as a civil servant, showed that his last payment, which was in February 2013 was N256,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty-Six Thousand Naira), and that part of the concealed income analysis, carried out by the EFCC showed that at N256,000, per month, Maina for 35 years as a civil servant, would have saved only over N109 million without spending a single kobo out of the salary.
“When we compared that with the results of our concealed income and net worth analysis, we discovered that he had an estimate of at least N3 billion of unknown income from illegitimate sources”, she said.
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As the ninth prosecution witness, Rouqayya Ibrahim rounded off her evidence-in-chief in the ongoing corruption trial of Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, the defendant informed the court, through his counsel, of his intention to file a no-case submission; that he has no case to answer in the charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, at the Federal High Court, Abuja. Consequently.
Justice Okong Abang adjourned the trial to December 10 to enable the defence counsel to address the court orally and for the prosecution to respond.
“The prosecution has closed their case today, it is for the defendant to open his defence, though the court ordered the case to be heard in his absence, but he is here, he is entitled to be heard. The defendant has elected to argue or present a no-case submission. It is the defendant’s decision and a choice made by him.
“Learned counsel for the first defendant submitted that there is no provision in ACJA that limit the first defendant in filing a written address in support of the no-case submission and there is no provision that limits him to file a no-case submission in writing, therefore it is hereby ordered that parties shall address the court orally on the defendant’s no-case submission.
“The matter is hereby adjourned to December 10, 2020, for the defendant to argue his no-case application and for the prosecution to respond to same orally,” the judge ruled according to the publication on the EFCC website.
By: Ifunanya Ikueze
