Witness tells court Maina acquired $2m property in Abuja, others in Dubai, US

The trial of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) continued on Thursday at the Federal High Court, Abuja presided over by Justice Okong Abang.

Prosecution witness nine (PW9), Rouqayyah Ibrahim, during the proceeding told the court how Maina acquired properties in Dubai, United Arab Emirate, United States of America, and a $2 million property in Jabi, Abuja.

The witness, who is an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) detective, revealed that a prosecution witness, Adamu Modibbo, who testified to the EFCC regarding the said Jabi, Abuja property belonging to Maina, allegedly died of Covid-19 after his statement to the commission.

She also revealed that about 32 documents, hard discs and flash drives relating to properties linked to Maina and his family and details of some of his investments in Dubai and in the US were recovered from him.

“Particularly in Dubai, investigation revealed that his company, Northrich Company owned over 50 cars that were used for transportation business and he owns a villa in a High Ground area in Dubai. His wife Laila Abdurrasheed also owns cleaning services, called Spotless and Flawless. We also recovered pay slips during our investigation,” she said.

READ ALSO: Court grants request of Maina’s lawyer to withdraw from trial

The witness also disclosed that investigation proved that another of Maina’s company, Kangolo Dynamic does no business but that the defendant created a bank account for it in which his name did not appear anywhere on the account documentation even though he was in control of all the deposits in it.

She also told the court that investigation showed that Colster Logistics, belonging to Maina had a Fidelity Bank dollar account which had an inflow of over $400,000 from cash deposits as at the time the company was investigated.

She further told the court that over N500 million was discovered in the account of Kangolo Dynamic, within the years Maina was chairman, PRTT.

Justice Abang later adjourned the matter till December 4, 2020, for continuation of trial.

Maina is being tried in absentia, having jumped bail and refused to present himself for trial.

He was however arrested in the Republic of Niger and extradited to Nigeria recently.

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