Photo: The Federal High Court headquarters in Abuja — Wikimedia Commons
A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered Faisal Maina, son of former Pension Reform Task Team chairman Abdulrasheed Maina, to begin serving his seven-year prison sentence for money laundering, six years after he jumped bail.
Justice James Omotosho issued the committal order on Thursday after granting an ex parte application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for a warrant committing Faisal to the Nigeria Correctional Service.
- Faisal was re-arrested by the DSS on October 14, 2026, in Karsana, Abuja, and handed to the EFCC
- His sentences of three, seven and three years run concurrently, from the date of re-arrest
- He was convicted in 2021; the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in November 2022 but reduced the terms
How Faisal Maina's case reached this point
Faisal was arraigned in 2019 on three counts of money laundering and failure to fully disclose his assets. The trial court found that he operated a fictitious bank account through which funds linked to his father were laundered.
In October 2021 he was convicted and sentenced to five years on counts one and three and 14 years on count two. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction on November 24, 2022, but reduced the terms to three, seven and three years, to run concurrently.
By then Faisal had jumped bail and stopped attending court, remaining beyond the reach of law enforcement until DSS operatives tracked him down in Karsana on October 14 this year.
What the court ordered on Thursday
Justice Omotosho directed that Faisal serve the Court of Appeal's sentences concurrently, meaning an effective seven years, counted from October 14, 2026, the date of his re-arrest.
EFCC counsel M.K. Hussain moved the application, which asked the court to enforce the subsisting conviction now that Faisal is back in custody.
What happens next
Faisal begins the sentence immediately at a correctional centre. His father, Abdulrasheed Maina, was separately convicted over the laundering of about 2 billion naira in pension funds and has since completed his own prison term.
Credit: Chronicle NG, Peoples Daily and Punch reports of November 12, 2026.
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