By Williams Anuku, Abuja
A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday sentenced Faisal, son of the Chairman, defunct Pension Reformed Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, to 24 years imprisonment.
Justice Okon Abang, in his judgment, held that Faisal, who was sentenced in absentia, was guilty of all the three-count charge.
Justice OKon, who handed down a five-year-jail term for count one bordering on money laundering offence, sentenced Faisal to 14 years imprisonment on count two.
The judge, thereafter, sentenced the son of the ex-pension reformed boss to five years prison term on count three which bordered on asset declaration offence.Okon, however, ruled that the prison terms would run concurrently.
Recall that Justice Abang had fixed the matter for judgment after the then Economic and Financial Cimes Commission (EFCC)’s Lawyer, Mohammed Abubakar, adopted the commission”s final written address and urged the court to convict Faisal in all the three counts levelled against him, “the prosecution having proved the case beyond all reasonable doubt.”
Meanwhile Faisal’s Counsel, A. A . Onoja, who did not file any final written address, had sought for an adjournment on the grounds that he was not briefed on the development in the case.
The EFCC lawyer, however, opposed his plea for an adjournment, arguing that on March 17 when the case was adjourned, Anayo Adibe, who appeared for Faisal, did not apply to file any written address, even after the ruling was delivered, saying “four months since that day, the defence has not done anything.”