Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Asokoro, has sent a stern warning to A.I. Lemu, the lawyer of Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team.

The absence of Maina stalled the commencement of the trial-within-trial at the start of Thursday’s proceedings.

Reacting to the development, the visibly angry judge warned Maina’s lawyer against attempting to mock his court.

However, A.I. Lemu informed the court that he was new to the case and did not even know the charges against his client, and asked for an adjournment of the sitting.

“I am coming into this matter new. I don’t even have the charges. I don’t have the history of this case. I was briefed on the phone to take over the case,” he said.

He asked for two weeks’ adjournment to get himself acquainted with the facts of the case

While noting that there has been a high turnover of lawyers for the first defendant, Lemu SAN promised the court that he would see out the trial. “Hopefully, I will be the last lawyer to appear in this case,” he said.

However, the visibly angry judge in response threatened yet again to revoke Maina’s bail and identified the new defence counsel’s antics as attempts at making a mockery of his court.

However, the judge, in the interest of a fair hearing, gave the defence counsel the two weeks’ relief he sought.

“If your client cannot come to court, I will revoke his bail and let them go and get him. If you don’t know the history of the case, go and get the records and I am not going to wait for you to do that. I would not allow a senior advocate to come and make a mockery of this court. The last time he appeared in court was more than three years ago. I am fed up with this case. I’ve been in this profession for over 35 years. I have never seen a case like this.

“I will give you two weeks to study the matter, and for the trial-within-trial to commence. If he is not in court during the trial-within-trial, I will revoke his bail,” he said.

Justice Kutigi recalled that Maina was released from prison on account of his two-year conviction for money laundering on February 25, 2025, yet has not made himself available in court for his trial since then.

The prosecution counsel made two applications, one for the court to strike out the objection of the defence to the voluntariness of the statements of the defendants, since the defence team could not produce the first defendant in court for the sub-trial and for the order of the court for the first defendant to pay for the cost incurred by the prosecution in transporting to court, the equipment for replaying the video recording of the defendants’ extra-judicial statements.

The counsel for the first defendant, on his part, made an application against the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the case, on the ground that Maina has already been convicted and served out his jail time.

The court adjourned the matter till March 9, 2026, for trial-within-trial and hearing on the court’s jurisdiction on the matter.