The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has confirmed that Faisal Maina, son of Abdulrasheed Maina, the former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, is now in its custody after his arrest, which followed six years on the run.

Dele Oyewale, the commission’s spokesperson, confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday morning. He stated that a court order must be obtained before Faisal can be moved to a correctional facility to begin serving his prison term.

“The necessary court order will be obtained to take him to the Correctional Centre for him to serve his sentence,” Mr Oyewale said in a written response to an enquiry by PREMIUM TIMES.

TheCable was the first to report the arrest, which was carried out by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) in the Karsana area of Abuja. Intelligence had indicated that Faisal had quietly returned to the country.

Details surrounding the arrest remain unclear. An SSS spokesperson, in a short message to Journalists, said the suspect was picked up on Thursday and handed over to the EFCC, the agency that secured his money laundering conviction at a trial conducted in his absence.

Faisal went into hiding in 2020, when he allegedly violated his bail terms and left the country while standing trial on a three-count charge related to money laundering.

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The case proceeded without him and ended with a conviction at the Federal High Court in Abuja in October 2021. Trial judge Okon Abang handed him a 14-year prison term.

According to the court, Faisal ran a fictitious account with the United Bank for Africa (UBA), which his father allegedly used to launder N58.1 million.

The money was paid into an account held in the name of “Alhaji Faisal Farm 2” and later withdrawn by Faisal and his father between October 2013 and June 2019.

In November 2022, the Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction but cut the prison term from 14 years to seven, holding that the trial court ought not to have imposed the maximum penalty on a first-time offender.

Faisal Maina
Faisal Maina

 

His father, Abdulrasheed Maina, completed an eight-year sentence at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja following his conviction for laundering N2 billion in pension funds. He was released earlier in 2026, but has since been declared wanted over an alleged case of receiving stolen property.