FG Takes Over 23 Properties Linked To Maina

• FG Takes Over 23 Properties Linked To Maina

The Federal Government has been authorised to take over 23 properties linked to the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina.

Justice Folashade Giwa Ogunbanjo gave the forfeiture pronouncement on Tuesday following an exparte motion, filed by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), seeking Maina’s interim forfeiture of the properties to the Nigerian Government pending the completion of its investigations.

The affected properties are located in Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja; Kaduna, Sokoto, and Borno states, which include houses, estates, companies, among others.

The houses include a two-bedroomed semidetached located at Life Camp, Abuja and a plot of land in Cadastral Zone, Utako, both acquired in Maina’s wife’s name.

They also include a duplex located in Kaduna acquired in his son’s name and a plot of land in Cadastral Zone acquired in his mother’s name.

Also, a duplex in Kubwa, Abuja acquired in Maina’s name; a three-bedroomed bungalow acquired in the name of a company where his relations are directors, and a farm in Karshi, Nasarawa State acquired in the son’s name.

The EFCC application also sought an order of the court to publish a newspaper advertisement on the properties, to enable anyone who has any reason why they should not be forfeited to the federal government to indicate with prove of non-forfeiture application.

The Commission motion was supported by a 30-paragraph affidavit, which it brought in pursuant to Section 17, of Anti-Money Laundering Act.

According to a statement by the anti-graft agency, Maina will be arraigned on Friday, October 25 before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

The EFCC will arraign him on 12-count charges, bothering on money laundering, operating fictitious bank accounts and fraud.

Also to be arraigned on Friday, in the same court on a separate but similar charge is his son, Faisal.