Faisal Abdulrasheed Maina, son of ex-Pension Reform Task Team boss Abdulrasheed Maina, was arrested in Karsana, Abuja, after six years on the run — ending his fugitive status and clearing the way for him to serve a 14-year money laundering sentence.
DSS Arrests Faisal Abdulrasheed Maina, Hands Convicted Fugitive Son of Ex-Pension Boss to EFCC
The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested Faisal Abdulrasheed Maina, the fugitive son of Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, and handed him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Security sources said Faisal, who had been on the run since 2020, was trailed and apprehended by DSS operatives in the Karsana area of Abuja. “His arrest followed credible intelligence which indicated that Faisal had secretly returned to the country,” a source said.
The conviction he was evading
Faisal was earlier prosecuted by the EFCC on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering and conspiracy. He subsequently violated his bail conditions and escaped the country. The trial continued in his absence, culminating in his conviction and sentence to 14 years’ imprisonment by Justice Okon Abang in 2021.
The court had ordered that Faisal be arrested wherever he was found in Nigeria and remanded in a correctional centre to serve his sentence. It further directed that, if found outside the country, the Federal Government should take lawful steps to secure his extradition to serve his prison term.
Why the handover matters
“The handover of Faisal to the EFCC is expected to facilitate the enforcement of the Court’s judgment and ensure that he serves his sentence in accordance with the law,” a source said.
The arrest closes a six-year gap between the 2021 in-absentia conviction and the enforcement of the sentence, and ends the extradition track the court had anticipated. It also underscores an increasing pattern of intelligence-led apprehension of convicts who jumped bail, rather than reliance onInterpol-style processes. For the EFCC, the practical consequence is immediate: the commission now holds the means to execute a judgment that had been, for years, unenforceable on paper alone.
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