A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered Faisal Maina, son of former pension reform boss Abdulrasheed Maina, to begin serving his reduced prison sentence for money laundering, following his arrest after about six years away from trial.
Justice James Omotosho on Thursday issued a committal warrant directing the Nigeria Correctional Service to take Faisal into custody after granting an ex parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The court ordered that Faisal serve three years’ imprisonment on count one, seven years on count two and three years on count three. The sentences are to run concurrently, beginning from October 14, 2026, when he was rearrested by the Department of State Services in the Karsana area of Abuja.
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The EFCC, through its lawyer, M.K. Hussain, had asked the court to enforce the conviction and sentence upheld by the Court of Appeal in its judgment of November 24, 2022.
Faisal was handed over to the EFCC after his arrest, about six years after he jumped bail and stopped attending his trial.
He was arraigned in 2019 on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering and failure to fully disclose his assets in a declaration form. He pleaded not guilty before Justice Okon Abang.
Following his disappearance, the court revoked his bail and proceeded with the trial in his absence.
On October 7, 2021, Abang convicted Faisal and sentenced him to five years on counts one and three, and 14 years on count two. The sentences were to run concurrently.
The judge also ordered his arrest wherever he was found and his transfer to a correctional centre to serve his sentence.
However, the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction but reduced the terms in November 2022 to three years on counts one and three, and seven years on count two.
The appellate court held that the EFCC had established that Faisal operated a fictitious United Bank for Africa account through which his father laundered N58.1m.
His father, Abdulrasheed, was separately convicted in a money laundering case involving about N2bn and has since completed his prison sentence.
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