A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced Faisal, son of the erstwhile chairman of the 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 offenses, sentenced Faisal to 14 years imprisonment on count two.
The judge, thereafter, sentenced Faisal to five years prison terms on count three which bordered on asset declaration offense.
Okon ruled that the prison terms would run concurrently.
Justice Abang had fixed the matter for judgment after the then Economic and Financial Crimes 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 leveled against him, “the prosecution having proved the case beyond all reasonable doubt.”
Faisal’s Counsel, A. A . Onoja, who did not file any final written address, had sought 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 defense has not done anything.”
The judge, who dismissed the application for adjournment, held that the request was made in bad faith.
Faisal’s father, Maina, is standing a separate trial on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering.
He, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.(Guardian)
