SocialMediaTrends: How Nigerians reacted to drama that followed Maina’s sentencing

Social media was rife with reactions to the latest court verdict on the protracted court case of former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) Mr AbdulRasheed Maina who was sentenced to eight years in prison for money laundering on Monday.

The Federal High Court Judge, Justice Okon Abang, who gave the verdict, found Maina guilty on all 12-count charges levelled against him and his company, Common Input Property and Investment Limited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Justice Abang held that the sentence would run concurrently with effect from October 25th, 2019 which was when the defendant was arraigned.

Maina and his firm were ordered to make a forfeiture of about N2.1bn that was traced to their bank accounts as well as another sum of $223,396,300 to the Federal governemnt, after which his company was directed to be wound up.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of some of the defendant’s Abuja properties, including the auctioning of a BMW 5 Series Exotic car found in his premises.

Meanwhile the pandemonium which broke out briefly at the court premises while officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) were leading Maina out of court has got Nigerians talking.

According to videos making the rounds on social media, EFCC officials and prison officers appeared to disagree over who was to take custody of the convicted ex-pension boss.

The videos showed EFCC agents barricade the vehicle meant to convey the convict to prison with their Hilux vans and White Hiace bus.

Their attempts to grab Maina was vehemently resisted by armed officials of the NCS.

Reports claimed that the anti-graft agents stormed the court premises in an attempt to re-arrest Mr Maina for another criminal charge.

Though, there’s another criminal case pending against Maina at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is however unclear why the EFCC wants to take him to its custody.

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Here’s what Nigerians had to say:

Meanwhile, Maina was the happiest convict Nigerians had seen in a while. He was seen smiling and waving while he was being led out of court to the correctional facility. Internet users did not spare their reactions to the interesting development.

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