The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday, dismissed the application for bail variation filed by the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, for lacking in merit.
Mr Maina is accused of diverting N100 billion of pension funds, and is facing trial for alleged money laundering.
He is being prosecuted by the EFCC on a 12-count charge, and is also accused of operating fictitious accounts and carrying out other fraudulent activities.
The former PRTT chairman, who was in hiding for almost two years, was arrested by the State Security Service last year.
The SSS handed over Mr Maina to the EFCC, which had declared him wanted for over a year.
His son, Faisal, who was arrested alongside the father in September, is accused of operating an account he used to divert various sums of money, including N58 million.
The two men were arraigned by the EFCC on October 25 on separate charges. They pleaded not guilty.
Bail conditions
The court on November 25 admitted the former pension chairman to bail in the sum of N1 billion.
Justice Abang, who gave the ruling, also ordered that Mr Maina must produce two sureties who must be serving senators.
The judge said the two lawmakers must not be standing criminal trial in any court in the country.
He also ruled that the two sureties, who must be prepared for a N500 million bond each, must always be in court with the defendant at each adjourned date.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how on January 28, Justice Abang reduced the bail bond of the former PRTT chairman from N1 billion to N500 million.
Mr Maina had on January 13 told the court that he could not meet the stringent conditions of the bail granted him in November.
Still not able to meet the adjusted bail conditions, Mr Maina in an application dated February 10 asked the court to further vary the bail conditions.
Ruling
Ruling on Mr Maina’s bail variation application on Wednesday, Justice Abang held that Mr Maina failed to provide sufficient material before the court to prove that he is unable to meet his bail condition, which includes a serving senator as surety.
On the federal government’s application to cancel Mr Maina’s bail, the court in its ruling rejected the request by the anti-graft agency on the grounds that the allegations against the former PRTT chairman that he is planning to assassinate witnesses and prosecutor were not backed with facts.
An EFCC lawyer, Mohammed Abubakar, had made the allegation that Mr Maina planned to assassinate prosecution lawyers in the ongoing trial.
Mr Abubakar also alleged that Mr Maina plotted to assassinate the EFCC witnesses and officials of Nigerian Correctional Service to escape from custody.
But the court rejected the claims for lack of evidence.
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