BREAKING: Ex-Pension Boss, Maina arrested in Niger Republic

The fleeing former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, has been arrested on Monday night in Niger Republic.

Newsflash247 gathered that Maina arrested by the combine team of Operatives of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency and the Niger Republic Intelligence Service.

According to the report, a top intelligence officer said that the arrest was made possible due to an existing mutual relationship and security agreement between the two neighbouring countries.

Maina, who is facing a 12-count money laundering charge levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The anti-graft agency alleged that Maina, as chairman of the defunct PRTT, used the account of the firm for money laundering to the tune of about N2 billion, part of which he used to acquire landed properties in Abuja.

Intelligence sources confirmed that Maina was arrested on Monday evening somewhere in the Niger Republic and would be brought into Nigeria Tuesday or Wednesday.

“He has been arrested in the Niger Republic, but we have not yet brought him into Nigeria.

“He is going to be brought in Tuesday or Wednesday. But he has been arrested,” one of the sources said.

According to the EFCC, Maina is facing money laundering charges to the tune of about N2 billion, part of which he allegedly used to procure land properties in Abuja.

He has fled trial and his whereabouts unknown since his prosecution resumed on September 29, 2020, a development which made Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court order Senator Ali Ndume’s remand last Monday.

Ndume was Maina’s surety. The Federal High Court in Abuja only on Friday granted bail to the Borno South Senator.

Maina last attended court on July 2, 2020, during the cross-examination of the sixth prosecution witness by his legal team.

He failed to show up in court since September 29, 2020, prompting the judge, Justice Okon Abang, to adjudge him as having jumped bail in a ruling delivered on November 18, 2020.

The judge, in the November 18 ruling, revoked the bail earlier granted him. He ordered his arrest and directed that his trial would proceed in his absence.

There was also no lawyer to represent him or his company charged along with him as his second defendant.

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