Two Weeks For What, Everybody Is Tired – Judge Slams Maina Over Endless Trial Delays

A judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Asokoro, Abubakar Kutigi, has berated the former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, over repeated delays in his trial.

Speaking during the hearing on Friday, Kutigi warned that Maina must appear and defend himself against the charges.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Maina, alongside Ann Igwe Olachi, on a nine-count charge bordering on the alleged receipt of stolen funds amounting to ₦738,612,019.99. The defendants were arraigned in 2019.

The proceeding on Friday, which was scheduled for a trial-within-trial, was stalled following an application for adjournment by Maina’s new counsel, Emmanuel Wuyi, who said he had just been briefed on the matter.

“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,” the lawyer said.

Responding, the judge questioned the basis for the request and pointed to what he described as a pattern of delay tactics.

“Two weeks for what? Everybody is ready; everybody is tired.

“We want every party to have a 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 a fair hearing.

“He has changed to another lawyer now, and I have lost count of the number 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,” the judge said.

Francis Usani, the EFCC counsel, also opposed the application, noting that the prosecution’s witnesses for the trial-within-trial were present in court.

Usani said, “My lord, only yesterday we were served with an application for a stay of proceedings, an application on the jurisdiction of this court, a travel application and an 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.”

Addressing the defence again, Kutigi pressed for clarity on the strategy being pursued.

“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,” the judge asked.

The defence counsel subsequently made an oral application to withdraw the motion for stay of proceedings dated February 10, 2026, and indicated readiness to proceed with the trial-within-trial on the next adjourned date.

The court granted the application to withdraw the stay and adjourned the matter to February 26 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.