N2billion pension fraud: Appeal Court sustains conviction of Maina’s son

The Appellate Court in Abuja has upheld the conviction of Faisal, son of the erstwhile chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, for conspiracy and money laundering.

Maina, the former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Taskforce Team, is serving an eight-year jail term at Kuje Prison in Abuja for pension fraud to the tune of N2 billion and his son has been named an accomplice.

Meanwhile, in a judgment on Thursday, November 24, 2022, a three-member panel of the appeal court reduced the term of imprisonment from 14 years to seven years on the grounds that he (Faisal) is a first-time offender.

In the judgement by Justice Ugochukwu Anthony Ogakwu, the court held that Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja was right to have convicted Faisal.

“But as a first-time offender, the trial court ought not to have handed the convict the maximum punishment under the law,” Ogakwu added.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) recalls that a Federal High Court in Abuja had sentenced Faisal to 14 years imprisonment.

The trial judge, Okon Abang, jailed Faisal after finding him guilty of all three counts of money laundering involving N58.1million in public funds.

The judge jailed him for 14 years on count 2 and for five years on each of counts 1 and 3.

The sentences are to run concurrently, implying that the convict who is believed to have fled from Nigeria, would spend 14 years which is the longest jail terms imposed by the judge in prison.

Mr Abang said the agency proved beyond reasonable doubt that Faisal operated a fictitious bank account with the United Bank for Africa (UBA), through which his father, Mr Maina, laundered the sum of N58.1million.

The court noted that the funds deposited into the account that was operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2 were sequentially withdrawn by the convict and his father, between October 2013 and June 2019.