{"id":22137,"date":"2019-10-30T18:14:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T17:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=22137"},"modified":"2019-10-30T18:14:30","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T17:14:30","slug":"your-comments-about-me-unfair-maina-tells-judge-your-stares-made-my-uncomfortable-says-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=22137","title":{"rendered":"Your comments about me unfair, Maina tells judge; Your stares made my uncomfortable, says judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Federal High Court has adjourned for hearing the bail application filed by the former Chairman of defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, until Nov. 6.
\nMaina is to be remanded in a correctional facility until next week when the court will hear the application.
\nBut Wednesday’s hearing was not without drama.
\nAccording to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Maina told Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, that his remark on him in the last proceeding was unfair to him.
\nMaina, who spoke through his counsel, Joe Gadzama, SAN, at the commencement of trial on the case against him filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), sought for the case to be reassigned to another judge.
\nGadzama had stood in for Mr Ahmed Raji, SAN.
\nThe News Agency of Nigeria recalls that on Oct. 25, Justice Abang, while he was about to deliver ruling on the bail application filed by Counsel to Maina, Raji, told the court registrar to tell Maina to stop looking at him to enable him concentrate on delivering the ruling.
\n\u201cPlease I don\u2019t want the 1st defendant to look at me when I am delivering my ruling so that I can concentrate,\u201d he said.
\nThe court registrar in an attempt to amplify the directive of the judge, further compounded the matter as he asked Maina to look at the prosecution, who brought him to court.
\nAbang, who was visibly unhappy with the court registrar\u2019s comment, cautioned him against such act.
\nThe judge later continued with his ruling, ordering the EFCC to remand the defendant in the Nigerian Correctional Service centre and adjourned for today, Oct. 30.
\nHowever, at the resumed trial on Wednesday, Maina signalled his intention to talk while in the dock but Justice Abang overruled him since he was represented at the court by Gadzama.
\n\u201cI cannot allow the defendant to speak since he is represented in court,\u201d Abang said.
\nWith the permission of the judge, Gadzama walked to meet Maina, who was in the dock, listened to him as he muttered some words to him.
\nWhen Gadzama returned to his seat, he told the judge what Maina had expressed to him.
\n\u201cMy Lord, the 1st defendant told me I should tell the court, on his behalf, that on Oct. 25 of this month, he was before the court and while the court was on, the court asked him not to look at him.
\n\u201cAnd he wondered why he should not look at him since he was not the only one that appeared before the court that day,\u201d he said.
\nGadzama said as a result of the judge\u2019s remark, Maina told him that his high blood pressure rose astronomically, and he felt so bad with the comment as if he had been convicted already.
\nMaina counsel, therefore, told Justice Abang that his client told him he would seek the indulgence of the court if the case could be reassigned to another judge.
\nResponding, Justice Abang, who said he was uncomfortable the way the defendant starred at him consistently while about to deliver his ruling that day, said: \u201cI merely advised him not to stare at me.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t allow him to stare at me consistently. I am in control of my proceedings and I should also protect myself.
\n\u201cIf somebody is starring at me consistently, I should protect myself because I did not commit any offence and I did not put him there neither did I assign the case for myself,\u201d he said
\nThe judge, who called the registrar to bear him witness, said Maina\u2019s case was not the first time he would be cautioning a defendant on their conduct while in court.
\n\u201cRegistrar, you have been with me for the past eight months now, is he the only person I have said this to?
\n\u201cThere was a day a witness was about entering the court dock and he started adjusting his trousers. He looked at me and adjusted his trousers.
\n\u201cI told him don\u2019t adjust your trousers; don\u2019t touch your trousers again because I don\u2019t know what is inside the trousers. So I merely advised the defendant not to look at the court.
\n\u201cI am from a home; I have my wife and children. I have to protect myself.
\n\u201cPlease learned SAN, if you are asking for an adjournment say so. This is a court of record.
\n\u201cLet us not allow sentiment to take over the proceeding of the court,\u201d Abang said.
\nHowever, when Gadzama asked for the adjournment of the matter because he was only briefed the previous day to take over the case, Justice Abang overruled him, saying the court would commence the trial.
\nHe directed the prosecution counsel, Mohammed Abubakar, to call out the first witness.
\nNAN reports that Maina is being prosecuted by the anti-graft agency on a 12-count charge bordering \u201cmoney laundering, operating fictitious bank accounts and fraud.\u201d
\nHowever, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges levelled against him by the EFCC.
\nAdditional report by www.nan.ng<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Federal High Court has adjourned for hearing the bail application filed by the former Chairman of defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, until Nov. 6. Maina is to be remanded in a correctional facility until next week when the court will hear the application. But Wednesday’s hearing was not without drama. According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}