The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has confirmed that it has taken custody of Faisal Abdulrasheed Maina, who was arrested in Abuja after years on the run.
Faisal, son of former Pension Reform Task Team chairman Abdulrasheed Maina, was apprehended by Department of State Services operatives in the Karsana area and handed to the EFCC, according to security sources cited by Punch and Channels Television. The sources said intelligence indicated that he had secretly returned to Nigeria.
He had been on the run since 2020. Channels Television reported that he violated his bail conditions and left the country after the EFCC prosecuted him on three counts involving money laundering and conspiracy.
His trial continued in his absence. Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted him in 2021 and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.
Punch reported that the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in November 2022 but reduced the sentence to seven years, finding that the maximum sentence should not have been imposed on a first-time offender.
According to Punch’s account of the trial judgment, the EFCC established that Faisal operated a fictitious United Bank for Africa account through which his father allegedly laundered N58.1 million. The account was operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2, and the transactions cited by the court covered October 2013 to June 2019.
EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale told Premium Times on Saturday morning that the necessary court order would be obtained to take him to a correctional centre to serve his sentence.
Sources: Punch, Channels Television, Premium Times
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