A federal high court in Abuja has
asked the deputy comptroller of the Nigeria Correctional Service in charge of
medicals and welfare to examine Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of Pension
Reform Task Team (PRTT), over claim of ill-health.
Okon Abang, the judge, made this
order on Tuesday following a request from Mohammed Abubakar, the prosecution
counsel, when the defendant did not show up in court on the grounds of ill
health.
At the resumption of trial, an
officer of the service presented a letter containing Maina’s medical report
issued by Idowu Ajayi, a doctor working with the service.
After reading the letter, Abang
asked the senior counsels for the prosecution and the defendant if they had
knowledge of Maina’s ill-health.
But the counsels said they were
unaware.
Francis Oronsaye, Maina’s lawyer,
then asked the court to adjourn the matter until his client is fit to stand
trial.
The prosecutor, however, asked
the court for an order directing the deputy comptroller of the correctional
service to personally examine the defendant to determine the true state of his
health.
Ruling, Abang held that a medical
report cannot act as a means to stay proceedings.
He said the doctor who claimed to
have examined Maina failed to state the time the defendant will be fit for
trial.
The judge ruled in favour of the
prosecution.
The court adjourned till November
7 for continuation of trial.
Maina is standing trial on 12
counts of money laundering. He was first arraigned on October 25, and he
pleaded “not guilty” to the charges.
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