The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered Faisal Maina, son of former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, to begin serving his seven-year prison sentence for money laundering and failure to fully disclose his assets.
Justice James Omotosho issued the committal warrant on Thursday after granting an ex parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The commission had approached the court to enforce the conviction and sentence imposed on Faisal, requesting that his prison term should run from October 14, 2026, when operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) rearrested him in the Karsana area of Abuja.
Faisal was subsequently handed over to the EFCC, about six years after he jumped bail and stopped attending his trial.
EFCC counsel, M.K. Hussain, moved the application, following which Justice Omotosho granted the reliefs sought and authorised Faisal’s transfer to a correctional centre.
The judge directed that Faisal should serve three years’ imprisonment on count one, seven years on count two and three years on count three, in line with the Court of Appeal judgment delivered on November 24, 2022.
The sentences are to run concurrently, meaning that the longest term of seven years will determine the total period of imprisonment. The court ordered that the term should commence from October 14, 2026, the date of his rearrest.
Background to the conviction
Faisal was arraigned in 2019 on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering and failure to make full disclosure of his assets. He pleaded not guilty before Justice Okon Abang, then of the Federal High Court.
He later jumped bail and stopped attending court proceedings, prompting the trial judge to continue the case in his absence.
On October 7, 2021, Justice Abang convicted him and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment on counts one and three, and 14 years on count two. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.
The judge also directed that Faisal should be arrested wherever he was found and taken to a correctional centre to serve his sentence.
Although the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, it reduced the sentences in its November 24, 2022 judgment to three years on counts one and three, and seven years on count two.
Following his arrest in October 2026, the EFCC returned to court to obtain the committal warrant required to enforce the appellate court’s decision.
Faisal’s father, Abdulrasheed Maina, was separately convicted in a money laundering case involving about ₦2 billion and has since completed his prison sentence.
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