DSS arrests Faisal Maina in Abuja after six years on the run

The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested Faisal Maina in the Karsana area of Abuja and handed him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Faisal, son of former Pension Reform Task Team chairman Abdulrasheed Maina, had been a fugitive since 2020 after breaching his bail conditions and fleeing the country. His arrest followed credible intelligence indicating he had secretly returned to Nigeria.

Faisal was initially arraigned by the EFCC on three counts of money laundering and conspiracy. In October 2021, while he remained absent, the Federal High Court convicted him and sentenced him to 14 years' imprisonment. The court found that Faisal operated a fictitious United Bank for Africa (UBA) account under the name "Alhaji Faisal Farm 2" through which his father allegedly laundered N58.1 million between October 2013 and June 2019. In November 2022, the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction but reduced the sentence to seven years, ruling that the trial court should not have imposed the maximum sentence on a first-time offender.

His father, Abdulrasheed Maina, served an eight-year prison sentence at Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja for laundering N2 billion in pension funds. He was released earlier in 2026 but has since been declared wanted in connection with an alleged case of receiving stolen property. The Federal High Court had previously ordered that Faisal be arrested wherever found in Nigeria and remanded in a correctional centre, or extradited if located outside the country to serve his sentence.