A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced Faisal Maina, son of chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, to 24 years imprisonment.
Justice Okon Abang found him guilty of the three-count charges, sentencing him in absentia.
Abang held that the anti-graft agency successfully established that Faisal operated a fictitious UBA bank account through which his father, Maina, laundered the sum of N58.1million.
The judge sentenced Faisal to five years on count one bordering on money laundering offence, 14 years on count two, and five years on count three which bordered on asset declaration offence.
“The Federal Government shall arrest the convict anywhere found in the country and commit him to serve his jail term, if not found in the country, the Federal Government shall legally or lawfully commence extradition proceedings against him,” the judge held.
The prison terms, the judge said, will run concurrently.
Justice Abang had fixed the case for judgment after EFCC counsel Mohammed Abubakar adopted the commission’s final written address.
Faisal’s counsel, A. A . Onoja, who did not file a final written address, had sought for an adjournment on the grounds that he was not briefed on the development in the case, a plea opposed by the EFCC.
Faisal is standing a separate trial on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering. His father is also being tried.
Arraigned on October 25, 2019, Faisal was admitted to bail on November 26, 2019, in the sum of N60 million with a surety in the like sum who must be a member of House of Representatives.
However, Faisal jumped bail in September 2020 and stopped attending trial.
The judge then revoked the bail and ordered his arrest.
