Abdulrasheed Maina, the disgraced former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), has quietly walked out of prison after serving an eight-year jail term for a massive pension fraud.
Maina was held at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja, where he served time following his conviction for offences bordering on money laundering involving billions of naira meant for pensioners.
Although the exact date of his release remains unclear, sources disclosed that the former pension boss regained his freedom weeks ago.
In November 2021, a Federal High Court in Abuja convicted Maina for laundering over N2 billion in pension funds. He had been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in October 2019 on a 12-count charge, which he denied.
Delivering judgment, Justice Okon Abang held that Maina stole over N2 billion belonging to pensioners, “most of whom have died without reaping the fruits of their labour”.
The court further found that Maina concealed his identity as a signatory to bank accounts by using the names of his family members without their knowledge.
Justice Abang convicted Maina on all 12 counts and slammed him with a total sentence of 61 years in prison, to run concurrently, beginning from October 25, 2019, effectively an eight-year term.
Maina challenged the verdict at the Court of Appeal, but in May 2023, the appellate court upheld both the conviction and the eight-year sentence.
