I’m ready to testify in Maina’s case, Falana tells court
By Andrew Orolua
Activist lawyer, Chief Femi Falana (SAN), on Thursday, told a Federal High Court in Abuja that he was ready to testify as defence witness in the ongoing trial of the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, who is facing a 12-count charge along with his firm, Common Input Property and Investment Limited.
Maina who opened his defence on March 1, had applied for the court to compel Falana, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele; M. Mustapha, Hassan Salihu, Mohammed Wakil, G.T Idris, Kenneth Amabem, Ibrahim Kaigama and the CBN director of compliance to appear as witnesses in the matter.
The trial Judge, Justice Okon Abang, on the request by Maina also summoned the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) the erstwhile Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu to appear as witnesses before the court on March 9, 10 and 11 to testify for the defendant.
According to the former pension boss the evidence of the subpoenaed witnesses would be crucial to his defence of the alleged money laundering charge preferred against him by the anti-graft agency. However, none of the subpoenaed witnesses were seen in court on Tuesday and Wednesday when the matter came up.
Falana entered the court room on Thursday when Maina’s second defence witness (DW2), Emoakemeh Charles, was giving his evidence-in-chief.
Midway into the testimony of the witness, Justice Abang told the parties that he was minded to adjourn the case to another day to enable him to attend to other matters.
At that juncture, a lawyer in Falana’s chambers, Mr. Marshal Abubakar, drew the attention of the counsel that represented Maina on Thursday, Adaji Abel, to the presence of his principal (Falana) in court.
When the court was notified, Falana, though not robed in his wig and gown, took the floor and addressed the court.
He said: “My lord, I learnt that I have been summoned. Even though I have not been served anything, but I am here today out of respect for the court.
I will go and collect the summons from the bailiff myself ”, adding that, he had no problem testifying in the matter. While commending him for showing such respect to the court, Justice Abang explained that all the summons were issued at the behest of defendant.
The matter was subsequently adjourned till March 17 and 18, 2021 for the continuation of hearing.
Meanwhile, the second defence witness, a retired Superintendent of Prisons, told the court that Maina fought against ghost pensioners in the country and that had helped the Federal Government to recover over N10 billion.
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He further told the court that prior to Maina’s appointment as the Chairman of the defunct PRTT, he the defendant had handled the verification exercise of pensioners from Nigerian Customs, Nigerian Immigration Service and Nigerian Prison Servicer.
The witness said it was because of the way Maina discharged his functions that he was appointed to lead the PRTT, which he said had members drawn from the EFCC, ICPC and the DSS. Charles also told the court that he was among pensioners that Maina took from CIPO to the PRTT to assist him in identifying ghost pensioners across the 36 states of the federation, through biometric exercise.
EFCC had in the charge marked FHC/ABJ/ CR/256/2019, alleged that Maina used a bank account that was operated by his firm and laundered funds to the tune of about an N2.1 billion, part of which he used to acquire landed properties in Abuja.
