A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered Faisal Maina, son of former Pension Reform Task Team Chairman Abdulrasheed Maina, to a correctional centre to serve his seven-year jail term.
Justice James Omotosho gave the order following an ex parte motion by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, moved by its counsel, M.K. Hussain.
The EFCC said Faisal was re-arrested by the DSS on October 14, 2026, and handed over to the commission after jumping bail and failing to attend his trial for about six years.
He was arraigned in 2019 before the Federal High Court in Abuja on a three-count charge of money laundering and failure to make full disclosure in an asset declaration form.
His trial continued in absentia, and in October 2021, Justice Okon Abang, now an Appeal Court Judge, convicted him and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment on counts 1 and 3 and 14 years on count 2.
The judge ordered that the counts run concurrently and that Faisal should be arrested anywhere he is found and taken to a correctional centre to serve his jail term.
In November 2022, the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and reduced the sentence.
The Appeal Court ruled that the trial court should not have imposed the maximum sentence on a first-time offender.
Justice Omotosho said, in line with the Appeal Court decision dated November 24, 2022, the sentence shall be three years’ imprisonment in count 1, seven years in count 2, and three years in count 3, to run concurrently from October 14, the date he was re-arrested.
The court found that Faisal operated a fictitious account with the United Bank for Africa, UBA, through which his father allegedly laundered N58.1 million.
The money was paid into an account in the name of “Alhaji Faisal Farm 2” and withdrawn by Faisal and his father between October 2013 and June 2019.
He was also convicted on a N2 billion money laundering charge and had since served his prison term.
