An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s, prosecution witness, Rouqayya Ibrahim on Tuesday said a former chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, operated briefcase companies with N3billion net worth without engaging in any business.
The anti-graft agency is prosecuting Maina before the Federal High Court in Abuja on charges of money laundering involving N2bn.
The ninth prosecution witness, Ibrahim, who is a detective with the EFCC, said her team conducted “a concealed income analysis of the defendant.”
She revealed how Maina received diverted funds in dollars even while he was a fugitive in Dubai.
The witness said EFCC found that the defendant bought two houses in Abuja, at the cost of $3.4 million, one of which is in Jabi.
The purchases were made in the name of Common Input for $2million cash from one Adamu Modibbo (now late), using his account officer, Khalid Biu to pay.
The other, purchased in the name of one Dr. Abdullahi Faisal at the cost of $1.4million, was also paid in cash in the name of Khalid Biu.
Ibrahim said an investigation was carried out to determine if the defendant or his associates companies concealed incomes that were not accounted for and to determine if the defendant was benefiting.
She added that EFCC discovered that Maina’s net worth ran contrary to his declared assets.
Ibrahim recalled that EFCC wrote to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) concerning the companies linked to Maina.
According to the detective, findings revealed that the companies were mere briefcase companies and were not involved in any business, let alone a legitimate one, even though the collective turnover in their accounts were almost N3billion.”
She further disclosed that Maina’ payslip as a civil servant, showed that his last payment, which was in February 2013 was N256,000.
Part of the concealed income analysis done by the EFCC showed that at N256,000 per month, Maina for 35 years as a civil servant would have saved only over N109 million without spending a single kobo out of the salary.
The witness said, “Regarding his known income which is his salary, we discovered that his last payment which was in February 2013 was N256,000 and part of the concealed income analysis we did was that should the defendant have earned or was paid this sum pay month, for 35 years as a civil servant without spending a single kobo of the salary he would he would have only received N109m for the 35 years without spending a single kobo and we compared that with the result of our concealed income and net worth analysis and discovered that he had an estimate of at least N3bn of known income from illegitimate source.”