Court has convicted former chairman of the disbanded Pension Reform Taskforce Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, 21 year-old son, Faisal, and has sentenced him to a 14 year jail term.
He was found guilty on a three-count money laundering indictment, petitioned against him by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The anti-graft agency was able to show that Faisal ran a false bank account with the United Bank for Africa (UBA), through which his father, Maina, laundered the sum of N58.1 million, according to the trial judge, Abang.
The court noted that the said fund which was deposited into the account that was operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2, was subsequently withdrawn by Faisal and his father between October 2013 and June 2019.
The judge said he was satisfied that the EFCC proved all the essential ingredients of the charge, adding that the defendant reasonably ought to have known that inflows into the bank account formed proceeds of an unlawful act by his father.
On count one, Faisal was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, 14 years on count two and another five-year sentence on count three. The sentence is to run concurrently starting from judgment day.
“The federal government shall apprehend the criminal wherever he is found in the nation and commit him to complete his sentence; if the offender is not discovered in the country, the FG shall legally or legitimately initiate extradition proceedings against him,” the judge said since he had been missing from his trial since June 24, 2020.
The court ruled that Alhaji Faisal Farm 2, the firm through which the monies were laundered, be wound up and the funds in it forfeited to the government.
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