Tension rose to a scary level between officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and those of the Kuje Correctional Centre on Monday when the first attempted to re-arrest former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdurasheed Maina.
Maina was jailed for eight years by Justice Okon Abang for stealing over N2bn and the pricon officials felt they should take him away.
But men of the EFCC, which worked assiduously to get the convict pay for his crime, had made a move to take him away, obviously trying to re-arrest him.
The other party so much resisted this to the extent that both parties, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, corker guns when the argument peaked.
NAN reports that Justice Okon Abang, the presiding judge in the money laundering suit filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Maina, had earlier handed down a cumulative eight-year imprisonment to the ex-pension boss.
Abang ordered that the terms of imprisonment for all the 12 counts shall run concurrently from Oct. 25, 2019, being the date Maina was arraigned before the court.
The judge, who ruled that Maina must refund money running over a billion naira to the Federal Government coffers, among others, also ordered that the companies used in the unlawful act be winded up.
However, when the officers of the Kuje Correctional Centre were taking Maina out of the court premises amidst tight security, some officers of the EFCC drove into the court premises with two vehicles, blocking the prison Hilux van that was about to convey the ex-pension boss to the correctional centre.
The development led to a hot arguments between the two opposing personnel as they cork their rifles in defence of their stand.
However, the prison officers stood their ground, refusing to allow the EFCC operatives, some of who came in police uniform, to whisk Maina away.
A prison officer, who spoke to NAN anonymously shortly after the pandemonium, said the EFCC operatives had come in the name of rearresting Maina for another charge.
“They said they have a warrant to rearrest him after he was just convicted.
“Our own stand is that the court just convicted him and if they need to rearrest him, they should come through the court.
“The court will give the directive for us to obey,” the officer said.
