Some social media users have expressed anger at the lack of
remorse by a former chairman of the now-defunct Pension Reforms Task Team,
Abdulrasheed Maina, after a Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced him to a
total of 61 years’ imprisonment for defrauding the Federal Government and some
pensioners of N2.1bn.
Justice Okon Abang on Monday said Maina was guilty of all
the 12 counts filed on October 26, 2019, against him by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission.
Maina was subsequently convicted to a total of 61 years in
jail to run concurrently for eight years with effect from October 26, 2019.
Since the sentences are to run concurrently, Maina would spend only eight years in jail from October 26, 2019, which means he has only six years left.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of Maina’s three
landed properties in Abuja and his bullet proof jeeps and cars. They would be
auctioned and the proceeds paid into the accounts of the Federal Government.
However, many Nigerians were gutted by the disposition of
the convict who beamed with smile after the verdict of the court.
In viral video clips and photos, Maina, who was led out of
the court premises by prison officials, indulged himself as he smiled and waved
at some of his associates who occupied the walkway.
Social media users also berated officials of the Nigerian
Correctional Service over the seeming preferential treatment accorded to Maina,
who wore a well-ironed butter-coloured Kaftan with a cap to match. The convict
was also whisked away in a green-coloured air-conditioned Hilux vehicle
belonging to the Service, and not the usual Black Maria used to convey
convicts.
A Facebook user, Olagbaiye James, exclaimed, “AC inside
vehicle conveying a criminal of that magnitude…Reverse is the case if he was
not a politician.”
“Imagine, someone that Black Maria should be waiting for
outside with a prisoner’s numbered cloth. He is even very happy because he will
soon be pardoned,” Henry Ogbole claimed.
Harry Imeh equally said, “Only in Nigeria will someone smile
to jail because he knows there is a VIP section in prison.”
Abubakar Muhammad blurted, “Just look at that! The man was
laughing, this means no remorse whatsoever, after leading pensioner grannies
and grandpas to their early graves for siphoning their entitlements.”
“Pensioners are wailing and dying because they can’t have
access to their pension and someone is busy laughing, because he felt that
gullible Nigeria will keep shut because he was sentenced to prison. Go to civil
service today you will see aged people running after cars begging for alms all
in the name that their pension hasn’t been paid. If our leaders could buy
eternity, they wouldn’t hesitate,” Ogunoye Oluwasegun said.
Another user, Richard Ndidi, said, “Smiling to prison is
giving a notion that the law hasn’t taken effect… N2 billion and not N2,000.
The heart of a man is desperately wicked.”
Before his eventual conviction, Maina had jumped bail and
fled to neighbouring Niger Republic but he was apprehended in December 2020 and
brought back to Nigeria to face justice.
In October 2021, Justice Abang sentenced Maina’s son,
Faisal, to 14 years in prison for operating a fictitious bank account with the
United Bank for Africa, through which his father, Maina, laundered the sum of
N58.1million.
Abang had also ordered that the 21-year-old, who is now at
large, be arrested anywhere he is found in Nigeria and remanded in any
Correctional Service Centre to serve his jail term.
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