Court Orders Maina’s Son To Begin Seven-year Jail Term

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday ordered the remand of Faisal Maina, son of former Pension Reform Task Team chairman, Abdulrasheed Maina, to a correctional centre to serve his jail term for money laundering.

Justice James Omotosho made the order after granting an ex parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission seeking a warrant for Faisal’s commitment to the Nigeria Correctional Service.

The EFCC had asked the court to enforce the conviction and sentence imposed on Faisal for money laundering and failure to fully disclose his assets in a declaration form.

The commission also requested that his prison term should commence from October 14, 2026, when he was rearrested by the Department of State Services in the Karsana area of Abuja.

Faisal was subsequently handed over to the EFCC, about six years after he jumped bail and disappeared during his trial.

After the EFCC counsel, M.K. Hussain, moved the application, Omotosho granted the reliefs sought and issued the committal warrant.

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 accordance with the Court of Appeal’s judgment of November 24, 2022.

The sentences are to run concurrently, starting from October 14, 2026.

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 a former judge of the court, Justice Okon Abang.

However, he later jumped bail and stopped attending court proceedings, prompting Abang to continue the trial in his absence.

On October 7, 2021, the court convicted him and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment on counts one and three, and 14 years on count two. The sentences were to run concurrently.

Abang also ordered his arrest wherever he was found and his transfer to a correctional centre to serve the 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.

Faisal’s father, Abdulrasheed, was separately convicted in a money laundering case involving about N2bn. He has since completed his prison sentence.

SOURCE: PUNCH