Judge Scolds Maina, Defence Counsel For Stalling Case In Alleged N738.6 Fraud

Judge Scolds Maina, defence counsel for stalling case in alleged N738.6 fraud. Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, FCT, Asokoro, Abuja on Friday, February 20, 2026 scolded former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina and the defence counsel for their antics aimed at stalling his trial before the court and demanded that the defendant should show up in court and defend himself against the charges of corruption and fraud levelled against him.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is prosecuting Maina, alongside Ann Igwe Olachi on a nine-count charge, bordering on receipt of stolen funds to the tune of N738, 612,019.99 (Seven Hundred and Thirty-eight Million, Six Hundred and Twelve Thousand, Nineteen Naira, Ninety-nine Kobo). They were arraigned in 2019.

The Friday’s proceedings, billed to be a trial-within-trial was again aborted following a request by Maina’s new counsel, Emmanuel Wuyi, for yet another adjournment of sitting, which he said would enable him to study the facts of the case as he was appearing in the matter for the first time.

“My lord, the first defendant has been ill and I understand that this case has a history of adjournments. This is my first time appearing before your lordship, being that I have just been briefed about this case. I am asking your lordship for two weeks to enable me to study the facts of the case and I am even looking at resolving this matter with the prosecution,” he said.

In his response, Kutigi said “Two weeks for what? Everybody is ready, everybody is tired. We want every party to have fair hearing and do their cases, but when there is an adjournment, he will go and hire a new lawyer and when we insist, we will go on, you will now say you were denied fair hearing.

He has changed to another lawyer now and I have lost count of the numbers of lawyers who have appeared in this case. We know the substance and the end will determine it. The integrity of what we do here is critical and important,” he said.

Prosecution counsel, Francis Usani while addressing the court, regretted the stagnation of the case by the defendant and the defence team, pointing out that the witnesses of the prosecution for the trial-within-trial were present in court.

“My lord, only yesterday we were served with an application for a stay of proceedings, application on the jurisdiction of this court, travel application and application for appeal. If he (defence counsel) has been able to file such voluminous and bulky applications, it is assumed that the counsel knows the case so that we can start, except he is going to withdraw these applications and take a decision if he wants to continue with the trial-within-trial.

I can give him the opportunity to watch the video, (statement recording video of the defendant), invite him to my office and let him watch the video, if he sees anything then he let us know so that we can save the court’s time,” he said.

Fraud

Addressing the defence counsel again, Justice Kutigi said, “How can you say you want to do this case and at the same time you filed applications of jurisdiction, stay of proceedings and so on. What do you really want? You have to decide on what we are coming here to do on the next adjourned date.”

Maina’s counsel in his response made an oral application to withdraw the stay of proceedings while confirming his readiness to carry on with the trial-within-trial on the next adjourned date.

Justice Kutigi granted his oral application to withdraw the stay of proceedings, dated February 10, 2026 and adjourned the matter till February 26, 2026 for trial-within-trial.

Lagos Court Convicts, Fines Firm For Illegal BDC Operation

Lagos court convicts, fines firm for illegal BDC operation. Justice D.I.Dipeolu of the Federal High Court, sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Friday, February 20, 2026, convicted and sentenced a company, AP Mcnisi Initiatives Limited, to a fine of N500,000( Five Hundred Thousand Naira) for operating a Bureau De Change (BDC) business without a valid licence.

The conviction followed the arraignment of the company by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ikoyi, Lagos on a one-count charge bordering on illegal foreign exchange transactions.

The charge reads: “ That you, AP Mcnisi Initiatives Limited, on or about June 7, 2024, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, engaged in a foreign exchange transaction with one Adeoye Phillips Tomilola other than through the official foreign exchange market and without a valid licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to carry on the business of Bureau De Change, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 11(1)(a) of the National Economic Intelligence Committee Establishment (Etc.) Act and punishable under Section 11(2) of the same Act.”

Upon arraignment, the company pleaded “guilty” to the charge.

In view of the plea, the prosecution counsel, A.A. Usman, reviewed the facts of the case through an EFCC operative, Bello Buhari Kobi.

Kobi told the court that the Commission received a petition alleging that the defendant received the sum of N10,000,000 in its account domiciled with Guaranty Trust Bank for conversion to $9,000, but failed to deliver the dollar equivalent to the complainant.

He stated that investigations revealed that the company was not licensed by the CBN to carry out BDC operations.

Court

He further disclosed that Adekunle Fadibe Mcnisi, identified as the alter ego of the company, admitted that the firm had not obtained the requisite approval from the apex bank to operate as a BDC.

The operative added that the defendant had refunded the complainant.

The prosecution, thereafter, tendered the petitioner’s letter, correspondence with the bank, the bank’s response, and the extra-judicial statement of the alter-ego of the defendant, which were admitted in evidence by the court.

Consequently, Justice Dipeolu convicted the defendant and ordered it to pay a fine of N500,000, failing which its assets worth the sum of N500,000 shall be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

SSS To Arraign El-Rufai For Cybercrime, National Security Breach

SSS to arraign El-Rufai for cybercrime, national security breach. SSS to arraign El-Rufai for cybercrime, national security breach. The State Security Service will on Wednesday, arraign former Governor Nasir El-Rufai for cybercrime and breach of national security.

El-Rufai and SSS agents
The State Security Service will on Wednesday, arraign former Governor Nasir El-Rufai for cybercrime and breach of national security.

Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court fixed the date after the chief judge, Justice John Tsoho, assigned the case (with suit number FHC/ABJ/CR/99/2026) to her.

The SSS, on Monday, filed a three-count criminal charge against Mr El-Rufai following his alleged involvement in wiretapping the telephone lines of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.

The service accused Mr El-Rufai of breaching the Cybercrimes Prohibition Act, (2024), and the Nigerian Communications Act (2003.)

In count on, Mr El-Rufai was alleged to have, on February 13, while appearing as a guest on ARISE TV in Abuja, did admit during an interview that he and his cohorts unlawfully intercepted the phone communications of Mr Ribadu.

The offence is said to be contrary to and punishable under Section 12(1) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment, Act, 2024.

In count two, the ex-governor was alleged to have stated that he knew and related with a certain individual, who unlawfully intercepted the phone communications of NSA, without reporting the said individual to relevant security agencies.

The alleged offence is contrary to and punishable under Section 27 (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment, Act, 2024.

Count three alleged that Mr El-Rufai and others still at large, sometime in 2026, in Abuja, did use technical equipment or systems which compromised public safety, national security and instilling reasonable apprehension of insecurity among Nigerians by unlawfully intercepting NSA’s phone communications.

The former governor was detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday over corruption allegations.

El-Rufai

He was granted administrative bail at about 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday but was immediately taken into custody by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.

The ICPC’s spokesperson, John Odey, who confirmed the development in a message Wednesday night, said, “Malam Nasiru El-Rufai is in the custody of the commission in connection with ongoing investigations.”