Pension Fraud : Court sentences Maina’s Son Faisal To 14-Years Imprisonment

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Thursday, October 7th, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday has convicted and sentenced the son of former Chairman of the Pension Reform Taskforce Team, Faisal Maina, to 14 years imprisonment.

Faisal, son of Abdulrasheed Maina, was found guilty on three counts of money laundering filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The court held that the anti-graft agency successfully established that Faisal operated a fictitious bank account with the United Bank for Africa, through which his father, Maina, laundered the sum of N58.1million.

According to the court, the money which was deposited into the account that was operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2, was sequentially withdrawn by the defendant and his father, between October 2013 and June 2019.

Justice Abang said he was satisfied that the EFCC proved all the essential ingredients of the charge, stressing that the 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 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 Center to serve his jail term immediately.