By Ben Ogbemudia Abuja
A witness for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs Rukkayat Ibrahim, yesterday in Abuja admitted that the offences under which the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task team, Abdulrasheed Maina, was charged and jailed were committed between 2011 and 2017.

The witness admitted that a former Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Stephen Orasanye retired in November 2010 before Maina’s fraud was perpetrated.

She made the clarifications during a cross examination by Orosanye’s counsel, Mr Ade Okeiya Inneh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), at the ongoing trial of the erstwhile HoSF.

The EFCC had on Tuesday tendered in evidence a copy of the judgment of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, which convicted and sentenced Maina to eight years imprisonment. But the defence lawyers held that the judgment has no probative value to the case since Orosanye could not have made approvals from retirement.

Answering questions, the 20th witness (pw20) admitted that count one of the charges upon which Maina was convicted covered a period between 2011 and 2017 whereas Oronsaye left service in 2010.
She also said the offences contained in counts two and three of the charge were committed between 2011 and 2017, while in count four, she said, Maina committed the offence between 2015 and 2018 as well as other counts.

When asked whether Orosanye was in office when all these offences were committed by Maina, the judge interrupted, saying, “it is a matter of address by counsel in the matter.

On the over N131million that was transferred to the State House account, the witness insisted that the due process was not followed because according to her, the money was meant for pension fund.

Since the money was appropriated, the witness said, it was only through virement that such an amount could have been moved from one department to the other.

Maina committed N2.7B pension fraud after Orosanye’s retirement, EFCC witness admits

When a letter (exhibit CL5B) dated June 17, 2010, written by Oronsanye to former President Goodluck Jonathan, pertaining to a contingency account was shown to her, the witness said, “I cannot confirm the authenticity of this letter”. She, however, confirmed that it was an approval from the presidency.

Also, under cross examination, the witness, when shown a document from Unity Bank pertaining to the State House Contingency account, insisted that her earlier statement was that Orosanye was operating the account after he had been deployed as Head of Service of the Federation.

She further stated that the EFCC’s investigation did not reveal that Orosanye inserted names of ghost workers in the biometric data capturing.

More so, the witness admitted that the nationwide biometric enrolment was extended but explained that the extension did not cover procurement of hardware for the exercise. Trial continues February 3 before Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo.