An Abuja Federal High Court, presided by Justice Okon Abang on Thursday, sentenced Faisal Maina, son of Abdulrasheed Maina, former Chairman of the Pension Reform Taskforce Team, to 14 years imprisonment.
The court found Faisal guilty on three counts of money laundering filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The court held that the EFCC successfully established that Faisal operated a fictitious bank account with the United Bank for Africa (UBA), through which his father, Maina, laundered the sum of N58.1million.
According to the court, the money which was deposited into the account was operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2, was sequentially withdrawn by the defendant and his father, between October 2013 and June 2019.
The judge said he was satisfied that the EFCC proved all the essential ingredients of the charge, stressing that Faisal reasonably ought to have known that inflows into the bank account formed proceeds of an unlawful act of corruption by his father.
While the court sentenced the defendant to five years in counts 1 and 3 of the charge, he was sentenced to 14 years on count 2 of the charge.
The court held that the charge would run concurrently, starting from Thursday.
The court also ordered that the 21-year-old Faisal, who had since June 24, 2020, failed to appear for his trial, should be arrested anywhere he was found in Nigeria and remanded in any Correctional Service Centre to serve his jail term immediately.
Abang further held that in the event that the defendant was traced to anywhere outside the country, the Federal Government, “shall legally or lawfully commence extradition proceeds to bring him into the country to serve the jail term.”
The court ordered that the company through which the fund was laundered, Alhaji Faisal Farm 2, be wound up, with funds in it forfeited to the government.
According to the EFCC, Faisal, had some time between 2013 and 2019, received the sum of N58.11million, being proceeds of a corrupt act by his father.
