Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Maina to spend yuletide behind bars as hope on bail condition dashes

By Bridget Chiedu Onochie, Abuja
19 December 2019   |   4:11 am
Former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, may have to spend longer time in custody as the hope of varying his stringent bail conditions suffers setback.

Former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, may have to spend longer time in custody as the hope of varying his stringent bail conditions suffers setback.

This was as Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, moved his application for bail variation slated for hearing yesterday to January 13.

The decision of the court to rescind on its earlier plan followed an opposition from the prosecution, who informed the court of late service of counter-affidavit by the defendant, and consequently urged the court for an adjournment in the interest of fair hearing by way of response to the said counter-affidavit.

The court had on November 25 admitted Maina to bail in the sum of N1 billion.

The presiding judge, who gave the conditions, had equally ordered Maina to produce two sureties who must be serving senators.

The lawmakers, according to the court, must not be standing criminal trial in any court in the country, must be prepared to pay a N500 million bond each and must always be available in court with the defendant.

Maina is standing trial for alleged N2 billion money laundering charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Unable to perfect the bail conditions, Maina applied for variation and the hearing on the application was slated for December 18.

Maina, with the aid of a prop, came to the court before the 9am resumption time and had to wait till about 1pm when the matter was called.

However, counsel to the prosecution called for adjournment to enable it respond to the further affidavit filed by Maina on December 17 and served the prosecution counsel yesterday.

In this article

0 Comments