DSS nabs Maina’s convicted son, transfers him to EFCC

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, PUNCH reports. “His arrest followed credible intelligence which indicated that Faisal had secretly returned to the country,” a source said. The source added that operatives tracked and arrested him in the Karsana area of Abuja.

Faisal had been on the run since 2020 after the EFCC arraigned him on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering. In October 2021, the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted him and sentenced him to 14 years’ imprisonment. Judge Okong Abang held that he operated a fictitious United Bank for Africa account through which his father allegedly laundered N58.1m.

In November 2022, the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, reducing his sentence to seven years. His father, Maina, served eight years at Kuje Correctional Centre for laundering N2bn in pension funds.