A former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, has opened his defence in a case of alleged money laundering preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Maina opened his defence by presenting a witness, Ngozika Ihuoma, a consultant whose firm between 2010 and 2011 carried out the biometric verification of pensioners in the country.
The witness told the court that prior to the biometric capture, the sum of ₦1.5billion was paid monthly as police pension but upon completion of the exercise, the pension payments dropped to 4 ₦66million.
Ihuoma further informed the court that the PRTT headed by Maina had on November 2011 recovered the sum of ₦181billion in pension fund surplus which was subsequently warehoused at the Central Bank of Nigeria by the EFCC..
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By Alex Enumah
Following the foreclosure of his right to file a no-case submission in his alleged money laundering trial, former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, yesterday disclosed that he would call 24 witnesses to prove his innocence of the charges against him.
Maina and a firm, Common Input Ltd are standing trial on a 12-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of N2 billion preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Maina had, on December 9, hinted of filing a no-case submission since all the evidence brought against him by the EFCC were insufficient to establish a prima facie case against him.