Former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Force Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, was reportedly collapsed during the resumed hearing in his N2bn money laundering trial on Thursday, before Justice Okon Abang at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The court’s sitting was scheduled for the hearing of the defendant’s no-case submission, following the close of the prosecution’s case with nine witnesses earlier on Wednesday.
When the defence lawyer, Anayo Adibe, was briefing the presiding judge, that his team was yet to receive the records of proceedings requested from the court’s registry when Maina’s collapse attracted attention from the dock.
Prison officials immediately rushed to attend to him, subsequently Justice Abang said the court would rise for about five minutes.
Recall that this was not the first time that Maina acted funny before the court granted him bail which he jumped.
However, when proceedings resumed around 11am, Maina was not yet back to the courtroom.
In a bench ruling, trial Justice Okon Abang, refused the application for an adjournment. The court however held that since the Defendant was not back for continuation of the proceedings, it would not foreclose his right to make the no-case-submission.
Nevertheless, the court stressed that Certified True Copies,CTC, of all the records of proceedings Maina’s counsel requested were ready since December 8.
Justice Abang further confirmed from all the court registrars that Maina’s lawyer failed to return to pick up the compiled records. Though the court described the adjournment request by Maina’s lawyer as “a deliberate ploy to delay the trial”, it however held that since the Defendant was not back in the courtroom, his right to make a no-case-submission would be preserved till December 21.
