EFCC Declares Ex-Pension Boss Maina Wanted Over Alleged ‘Stolen Properties’

By: Tunji Okunlola

Photo source: EFCC/X

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the now-defunct pension reform task team (PRTT), a wanted man.

Maina appears on the commission’s wanted persons portal in connection with an alleged case of “receiving stolen properties.” According to the notice, “Maina, 61, is an indigene of Biu in Borno State,” and anyone with information on his whereabouts has been asked to contact the EFCC through its Ibadan, Uyo, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Benin, Makurdi, Kaduna, Ilorin, Enugu, Kano, Lagos, Gombe, Port Harcourt or Abuja offices, via phone (08093322644), email (info@efcc.gov.ng), or the nearest police station or other security agency.

This is not the first time the commission has declared Maina wanted. It previously did so in 2015 over his alleged role in a separate pension biometric contracts case involving former Head of Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsaye, and two others. At the time, the EFCC said Maina had been charged alongside Oronsaye and others before the Federal High Court in Abuja on a 24-count charge bordering on procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretence, but had failed to show up in court.

Maina also stood trial before the EFCC in 2019 over allegations of pension fraud and money laundering. The commission accused him of taking possession of roughly N1.82 billion through a Fidelity Bank account, and of using a separate account operated in his sister’s name to divert pension funds. He jumped bail during that trial and stopped appearing in court from September 2020, prompting the presiding judge to revoke his bail and order his arrest.

Maina was subsequently arrested in Niger Republic on November 30, 2020, in a joint operation involving the Nigeria Police Force, the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Abuja, and Nigerien authorities. He was extradited back to Nigeria on December 3, 2020, and handed over to police officers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

In November 2021, the EFCC secured his conviction before the Federal High Court in Abuja on a 12-count charge covering money laundering, operating fictitious bank accounts, and fraud. Presiding judge Okon Abang found him guilty on all 12 counts and sentenced him to a total of 61 years in prison, with the terms running concurrently from October 25, 2019 — the date of his arraignment. The court also ordered Maina to refund N1 billion to the federal government, while his company, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd, was ordered to refund N183 million and $223,000. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in May 2023.

In January 2026, this publication reported that Maina had been released from Kuje prison after serving his sentence for the pension fraud conviction.

Pending Case

Maina is still facing a separate criminal case before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Asokoro. The EFCC is prosecuting him alongside Ann Igwe Olachi on a nine-count charge bordering on the alleged receipt of stolen funds amounting to N738,612,019.99. Both defendants were arraigned in 2019.

At a court proceeding in February 2026, FCT High Court judge Abubakar Kutigi expressed frustration over the repeated delays in the case, after Maina’s new lawyer, Emmanuel Wuyi, asked for two weeks to study the matter. The judge said he had “lost count” of the number of lawyers who had represented Maina, and questioned why the defence was simultaneously filing applications for a stay of proceedings, challenging the court’s jurisdiction, and asking to proceed with trial.