Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Asokoro, Abuja, has berated former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, and his defence team over repeated moves that have stalled his ongoing fraud trial.
The Head of Media and Publicity of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissiion (EFCC), Mr. Dele Oyewale, disclosed this on Friday.
Maina is being prosecuted by the EFCC alongside Ann Igwe Olachi on a nine-count charge bordering on alleged receipt of stolen funds amounting to N738,612,019.99. The defendants were arraigned in 2019.
Proceedings scheduled for a trial-within-trial were again halted after Maina’s new counsel, Emmanuel Wuyi, sought a two-week adjournment, saying he had just been briefed and needed time to study the case. He also told the court his client had been ill and hinted at possible settlement discussions with the prosecution.
But Justice Kutigi expressed frustration at what he described as a pattern of delay, noting that the defendant had repeatedly changed lawyers. He said the court was ready to proceed and warned against tactics that could later be framed as denial of fair hearing.
“We want every party to have fair hearing, but when there is an adjournment, he hires a new lawyer. I have lost count of the number of lawyers in this case,” the judge said, stressing the need to protect the integrity of the judicial process.
Prosecution counsel, Francis Usani, also criticised the defence, revealing that several applications — including for stay of proceedings, jurisdictional challenge and appeal — were filed shortly before the sitting, despite the presence of prosecution witnesses in court.
In response, the judge questioned the defence’s intentions, asking how it could seek to proceed with trial while simultaneously filing applications to halt it.
Maina’s counsel subsequently made an oral application to withdraw the stay of proceedings and indicated readiness to continue with the trial-within-trial.
Justice Kutigi granted the withdrawal and adjourned the case to February 26, 2026 for continuation of hearing.
