Some social media users have expressed anger at the lack of remorse by a former chairman of the now-defunct Pension Reforms Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, after a Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced him to a total of 61 years imprisonment for defrauding the Federal Government and some pensioners of N2.1bn.

In a judgement delivered on Monday by Justice Okon Abang, the court held that the prosecutor, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has produced essential evidence through witnesses to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Maina is guilty of money laundering in the sum of N171,099,000.

Maina was also found guilty of concealing his true identity as a signatory to accounts opened in two banks – UBA and Fidelity bank – by using the identity of his family members without their knowledge.

The court also found Maina guilty for the purchase of a property in Abuja paid in cash in the sum of $1.4million, which is above the statutory threshold of N5million and without passing through a financial institution, describing it as a criminal offense.

Before his eventual conviction, Maina had jumped bail and fled to neighbouring Niger Republic but he was apprehended in December 2020 and brought back to Nigeria to face justice.

In October 2021, Justice Abang sentenced Maina’s son, Faisal, to 14 years in prison for operating a fictitious bank account with the United Bank for Africa, through which his father, Maina, laundered the sum of N58.1million.

Abang had also ordered that the 21-year-old, who is now at large, be arrested anywhere he is found in Nigeria and remanded in any Correctional Service Centre to serve his jail term.