The Department of State Services has arrested Faisal, son of former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, and handed him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Security sources said Faisal was arrested in the Karsana area of Abuja after intelligence reports indicated that he had secretly returned to Nigeria.
“His arrest followed credible intelligence which indicated that Faisal had secretly returned to the country,” one of the sources said.
The source added that DSS operatives tracked down the fugitive before taking him into custody and transferring him to the EFCC.
Faisal had been on the run since 2020, following his arraignment by the anti-graft agency on a three-count charge of money laundering.
In October 2021, the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted him on money laundering charges and sentenced him to 14 years’ imprisonment.
The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, held that the EFCC had established that Faisal operated a fictitious account with the United Bank for Africa through which his father allegedly laundered N58.1m.
According to the court, the money was paid into an account operated under the name Alhaji Faisal Farm 2 and subsequently withdrawn by Faisal and his father between October 2013 and June 2019.
However, in November 2022, the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction but reduced the prison term from 14 years to seven years.
The appellate court held that the trial court ought not to have imposed the maximum sentence on a first-time offender.
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His father, Maina, was also convicted and imprisoned for laundering pension funds before his release. He has since faced further legal troubles.
