A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered that Ali Ndume, the surety to former Chairman of the Presidential Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina should be remanded following Maina’s absence in his trial over alleged N2 billion pension funds fraud.
Delivering the ruling on Monday, Justice Okog Abang ordered that Ndume should be remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre over the trial until the forfeiture of the N500 million bail bond he deposited for Maina to the Federal Government.
The Heritage Times had earlier reported that the court revoked the bail of the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, over his failure to appear in court for his alleged N2 billion money laundering trial.
Before issuing the order for Maina’s arrest, Justice Abang revoked the N500 million bail he granted Maina on the grounds that the bail had been abused persistently by his absence in court.
It also ordered Maina’s surety, Senator Ali Ndume to appear in court on November 23 to explain why he should not forfeit the bail bond he signed in respect of Maina’s bail.
Ndume had told the court that all efforts to know the whereabouts of Maina failed, adding that he had sent people to far away Niger Republic and also met Maina’s mother and other relatives but none seems to know his whereabouts.
Maina is being persecuted alongside his son Faisal as well as a firm Common Input Property and Investment Ltd by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 12-count criminal charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N2 billion.