Operatives of the Department of State Services have reportedly arrested Faisal Maina, son of former Pension Reform Task Team chairman Abdulrasheed Maina, in Abuja, six years after he fled prosecution over money laundering charges.
According to a report by TheCable, the security operatives arrested Faisal in the Karsana area of Abuja following intelligence indicating that he had secretly returned to Nigeria. He was subsequently handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for further action.
The report quoted a source familiar with the operation as saying the arrest followed intelligence gathered on Faisal’s return to the country.
“His arrest followed credible intelligence which indicated that Faisal had secretly returned to the country,” the source said.
The publication reported that the DSS tracked Faisal to Karsana before arresting him and transferring him to the EFCC, which prosecuted him over alleged money laundering involving funds linked to his father.
Faisal had been on the run since 2020, when the EFCC arraigned him on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering. Although he was granted bail, he allegedly breached the conditions and fled the country, leaving the trial to proceed in his absence.
In October 2021, the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted him and sentenced him to 14 years’ imprisonment for money laundering.
The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, held that the EFCC had established that Faisal operated a fictitious account with United Bank for Africa through which his father allegedly laundered ₦58.1m.
According to the court, the money was deposited into an account operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2 and subsequently withdrawn by Faisal and his father between October 2013 and June 2019.
Faisal challenged the conviction at the Court of Appeal, which upheld the verdict in November 2022 but reduced his sentence from 14 years to seven years.
The appellate court held that the trial court should not have imposed the maximum sentence on a first-time offender.
The reported arrest could bring renewed attention to the enforcement of the conviction, although the relevant agencies had not publicly confirmed Faisal’s arrest at the time of TheCable’s report.
The case is linked to the wider prosecution of Abdulrasheed Maina, who headed the now-defunct Pension Reform Task Team and was convicted in a separate case involving the laundering of ₦2bn in pension funds.
Maina served an eight-year prison sentence at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja. He was released earlier in 2026 but has reportedly since been declared wanted over an alleged case of receiving stolen property.
The prosecution of father and son has attracted attention because of the sums involved and the lengthy legal proceedings. Faisal’s conviction was upheld on appeal, but his reported arrest raises questions about the next steps in enforcing the sentence after his years outside the country.
TheCable reported that requests for comments from the DSS and EFCC spokespersons had not received responses before its publication. Consequently, the circumstances of the reported arrest and the agencies’ next actions had not been officially confirmed in the report.
West Trybe reports that the reported arrest could mark a significant development in a case that has remained difficult to enforce since Faisal fled prosecution. Official confirmation from the DSS and EFCC, alongside clarification on the status of the conviction and sentence, will be important in establishing the next legal steps and determining how the authorities intend to proceed.
