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By Lizzy Chirkpi
Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Asokoro, Abuja, on Friday reprimanded former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, and his defence team for what he described as repeated attempts to stall his ongoing corruption trial.
Maina is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside Ann Igwe Olachi on a nine-count charge bordering on alleged receipt of stolen funds amounting to ₦738,612,019.99. The defendants were arraigned in 2019.
Proceedings on Friday, scheduled for a trial within trial, were again stalled following an application for adjournment by Maina’s new counsel, Emmanuel Wuyi, who told the court it was his first appearance in the matter and requested two weeks to study the case file. He also informed the court that the first defendant had been ill and hinted at possible discussions with the prosecution to resolve the matter.
But Justice Kutigi expressed frustration over the pattern of delays, noting that the case had suffered multiple adjournments due to frequent changes of counsel by the defendant.
“Two weeks for what? Everybody is ready, everybody is tired,” the judge said, adding that he had lost count of the number of lawyers who had appeared for Maina. He warned against tactics that could later be framed as denial of fair hearing, stressing that the integrity of the judicial process must be preserved.
Prosecution counsel, Francis Usani, also decried what he described as deliberate stagnation of the trial. He informed the court that prosecution witnesses were present and ready to proceed. Usani further disclosed that the defence had filed several applications, including motions challenging the court’s jurisdiction, seeking a stay of proceedings, travel permission, and an appeal.
He argued that filing such “voluminous and bulky applications” suggested the defence was sufficiently familiar with the case to proceed. Usani even offered to allow defence counsel review the defendant’s recorded video statement to expedite proceedings and save the court’s time.
In a sharp response, Justice Kutigi questioned the defence’s strategy. “How can you say you want to do this case and at the same time file applications on jurisdiction, stay of proceedings and so on? What do you really want?” he asked, urging counsel to clarify his position before the next adjourned date.
Subsequently, Maina’s counsel made an oral application to withdraw the motion for stay of proceedings and indicated readiness to proceed with the trial-within-trial.
The court granted the application to withdraw the stay of proceedings dated February 10, 2026, and adjourned the matter to February 26, 2026, for continuation of the trial-within-trial.