The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has dissociated itself from the purported appointment of convicted pension thief Abdulrasheed Maina as ‘ Patron’ of its Garki branch in Abuja, describing the action as reprehensible and a mockery of the legal profession and the fight against corruption.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Maina, a disgraced former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms who was jailed for stealing over N2 billion from pensioners, received an award from the NBA Garki Branch at an event held on Jimmy Carter Street, Asokoro, Abuja, on Thursday.
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Mr Maina, whose neck was adorned with a muffler with an inscription, ‘Patron, NBA Garki branch,’ at the event, was honoured with the Rule of Law and Courage Award by the Garki branch of the NBA. The Garki branch is one of NBA branches in Abuja.
However, in a statement on Friday, signed by NBA President Mazi Osigwe, the association condemned the appointment by the Garki Branch Chairman, Anthony Ojo, and announced that disciplinary proceedings would commence against him.
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“The purported appointment not only paints the legal profession and the NBA in a bad light but also makes a mockery of the government’s fight against corruption, as well as the association’s motto of promoting the rule of law,” Mr Osigwe stated.
The NBA president described the actions of those who endorsed the appointment as “condoning corrupt practices” and warned that “the Bar fails in her duties to the society and the cause of justice when it condones, encourages, and or fails to take definite actions to eliminate corruption and corrupt practices.”
What Maina said at award event
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At Thursday’s event, Mr Maina called for an intensified investigation into former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
“What the government has seen so far may only be a fraction. My speciality is the recovery of public funds. We can recover more. There must be accountability, transparency, and the rule of law. Malami should be properly prosecuted and investigated again because he has not been properly investigated,” Mr Maina said.
He claimed that powerful persons in the former administration orchestrated his corruption saga and denied wrongdoing, insisting that Mr Malami and other top forces in the Buhari administration were after him.
Background to Maina’s conviction
Mr Maina was appointed by the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2010 to sanitise a corrupt pension system through biometric verification to eliminate ghost workers.
However, in a charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/256/2019, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleged that he used fictitious names to open and operate various bank accounts and recruited his relatives, who were bankers, to operate fake accounts through which illicit funds were channelled.
Three of his biological siblings—two sisters and one brother—appeared in court as prosecution witnesses to testify against him. His two sisters told the court how Mr Maina fraudulently obtained their details and utility bills to open accounts for his Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, with which he perpetrated the fraud.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported that Nigerian banks, including United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Fidelity Bank Plc, played central roles as conduits through which Mr Maina channelled stolen funds to defraud pensioners.
After fleeing Nigeria in 2013, he was declared wanted by the EFCC. He was eventually arrested and indicted for money laundering in 2019, and later rearrested in Niger Republic following an Interpol red notice before being extradited to Nigeria.
In November 2021, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court sentenced him to eight years’ imprisonment for money laundering offences involving N2 billion in pension funds.
Reading the judgement, Mr Abang said Mr Maina treated hapless pensioners with “disdain and levity,” adding that “some have suffered and died while waiting for their reward.”
“The facts of this case are sordid, immoral, and morbid. The facts portray the moral decadence in Nigeria,” the judge noted.
The company used in perpetrating the fraud was also convicted along with him and ordered to be wound up by the court. In November 2022, the Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction and 14-year jail term for Mr Maina’s son, Faisal Maina, over money laundering charges involving the diversion of pension funds.
Recent release from Prison
Though it could not be ascertained exactly when Mr Maina left prison after his 2021 conviction, a close associate said he completed his term and quietly returned home in February 2025, based on the Correctional Centre Services’ calculations of the period of incarceration.
Mr Maina, who left prison unannounced last year, made Thursday’s NBA event one of his first public appearances since his release.
Recalling his time as a fugitive, he claimed he was flown out of the country on a government aircraft for medical care, but officials turned around and arrested him in the Niger Republic for jumping bail.
NBA to take disciplinary action
The NBA has now directed Mr Ojo to immediately withdraw the purported appointment of Mr Maina as patron and to cease issuing statements or representations on behalf of or in support of Mr Maina or any other litigant in respect of cases pending in court.
The association noted that Mr Ojo also made comments about Mr Maina’s appeal, currently believed to be pending at the Supreme Court, describing this as equally reprehensible.
“While the NBA respects Mr Maina’s right to exhaust his right to appeal against the conviction, the Bar will not under any guise comment on such an appeal or be seen to try to sway public opinion in his favour,” the statement read.
Mr Osigwe noted that the association would not “lend its platform, name, or institutional credibility to influence public opinion or judicial proceedings in respect of cases that are sub judice or take steps that may be perceived as laundering the image of any person convicted of criminal offences.”
He described such attempts as “a grave violation of professional ethics and a direct affront to the rule of law.”
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The NBA president stressed that integrity, accountability, respect for the judicial process, and the preservation of public confidence in the legal profession are foundational values of the association, warning that any conduct that undermines these principles will attract firm and decisive institutional response.
“The NBA views this conduct as a serious breach of professional responsibility and institutional discipline. Accordingly, disciplinary proceedings will be commenced against the Chairman of the NBA Garki Branch for actions inconsistent with the Constitution of the NBA, the Rules of Professional Conduct, and the core values of the legal profession.”
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