Faisal Maina Arrested After Six Years of Hiding

Faisal Maina, the son of Abdulrasheed Maina, has been arrested. This happened six years after he jumped bail. Abdulrasheed Maina was the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT).

TheCable reports that the State Security Service (SSS), also known as DSS, arrested Faisal. They then handed him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Faisal was caught after officials received intelligence that he had sneaked back into Nigeria. A source told the publication, “His arrest followed credible intelligence which indicated that Faisal had secretly returned to the country.”

SSS operatives tracked Faisal down in the Karsana area of Abuja before taking him to the EFCC. He had been on the run since 2020 after the EFCC charged him with money laundering.

Faisal was granted bail but reportedly broke the conditions and fled Nigeria. The media unit of SSS and the EFCC spokesperson did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES’ requests for comments about this arrest.

Faisal’s trial went on without him, and he was convicted by the Federal High Court in Abuja in October 2021. The court sentenced him to 14 years in prison for money laundering.

The trial judge, Okong Abang, found that the EFCC proved Faisal ran a fake account with the United Bank for Africa (UBA). This account was allegedly used by his father to launder N58.1 million.

The court stated that the money was deposited into an account named “Alhaji Faisal Farm 2.” Faisal and his father withdrew cash from this account between October 2013 and June 2019.

In November 2022, the Court of Appeal looked at the case again. They upheld Faisal’s conviction but cut his sentence from 14 years to seven years. The court said the trial judge should not have given the maximum sentence to a first-time offender.

Faisal’s father, Mr Maina, was sentenced to eight years in prison at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja for laundering N2 billion in pension funds. He was released earlier this year but is now wanted over a case involving stolen property.