A Federal High Court sitting in the Maitama division of Abuja on Thursday, November 12, 2026, ordered the remand of Faisal Maina, son of the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, in a facility of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) to commence his seven-year prison sentence for money laundering.
Presiding Judge Justice James Omotosho issued the committal warrant during the morning court session after granting an ex parte application brought before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
​Moving the ex parte motion on behalf of the anti-graft agency, EFCC prosecution counsel M.K. Hussain urged the court to enforce the subsisting conviction and sentence against the fugitive convict following his recent apprehension. In his ruling, Justice Omotosho granted all the reliefs sought by the commission, directing the Nigerian Correctional Service to take Faisal into immediate custody.
In accordance with the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on November 24, 2022, the court affirmed that Faisal is to serve three years’ imprisonment on count one for money laundering, seven years’ imprisonment on count two for money laundering, and three years’ imprisonment on count three for failure to declare his assets.
Justice Omotosho ruled that the sentences are to run concurrently, effectively amounting to a seven-year jail term, and backdated the commencement of the sentence to October 14, 2026, the exact date he was taken back into custody.
​Faisal’s committal brings an end to a roughly six-year manhunt that began after he jumped bail on June 24, 2020, and absconded during his trial. According to court filings presented by the prosecution, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) tracked and re-arrested Faisal on October 14, 2026, in the Karsana area of Abuja, before handing him over to the EFCC for onward judicial processing.
While neither the EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, nor the DSS Public Relations Directorate issued a separate press briefing outside the courtroom on Thursday, the details of the joint intelligence-led operation and subsequent transfer were formally entered into the court record via the EFCC’s affidavit.
​The legal battle dates back to October 25, 2019, when Faisal Maina was first arraigned before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering and failure to make full disclosure of his assets in a declaration form.
Prosecutors established during the trial that he operated fictitious bank accounts, including one linked to Alhaji Faisal Farm II, through which proceeds of unlawful activities connected to his father were laundered. After pleading not guilty and being granted bail, Faisal stopped attending court proceedings in June 2020.
​Justice Abang subsequently proceeded with the trial in absentia and, on October 7, 2021, found him guilty on all three counts, initially sentencing him to five years on counts one and three, and 14 years on count two, alongside an order for his arrest anywhere he was found. On November 24, 2022, the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction but reduced the maximum concurrent sentence to seven years on the grounds that he was a first-time offender.
His father, Abdulrasheed Maina, who also jumped bail to the Niger Republic before being extradited by Interpol, was separately convicted of laundering approximately ₦2 billion in pension funds and has since completed his eight-year prison sentence.
