By Aliyu Dangida
Faisal Maina, the son of Abdulrasheed Maina, the former Chairman of the dissolved Pension Reform Taskforce Team, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.
On Thursday, Faisal was found guilty by a Federal High Court in Abuja.
Justice Okon Abang, who delivered the verdict, found Faisal guilty of three counts of money laundering.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has filed charges against Faisal (EFCC).
Faisal is being prosecuted along with his father.
On July 16, the News Agency of Nigeria reported that Justice Abang had set the case for judgment after the then-EFCC Lawyer, Mohammed Abubakar, adopted the commission’s final written address and urged the court to convict Faisal on all three counts leveled against him, “the prosecution having proved the case beyond all reasonable doubt.”
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According to NAN, Faisal’s lawyer, A. A. Onoja, who did not file a final written address, requested an adjournment on the grounds that he had not been apprised of the case’s developments.
The EFCC counsel, on the other hand, argued that when the matter was postponed on March 17, Anayo Adibe, who represented Faisal, did not apply to file any written address, even after the judgment was handed, stating “four months since that day, the defense has done nothing.”
The judge refused the motion for the delay because it was submitted in poor faith, according to the judge.
According to NAN, Faisal, who is being prosecuted alongside his father, Maina, is facing a separate trial on a three-count money laundering charge.
He, on the other hand, has pled not guilty to all of the accusations.
The defendant, who was charged by the EFCC on October 25, 2019, was granted bail in the sum of N60 million on November 26, 2019, with a surety in the same amount who must be a member of the House of Representatives.
Faisal, on the other hand, skipped bail in September 2020 and stopped attending his trial.
On November 25, 2020, the judge summoned Ka’s attorney, Rep Sani Dan-Galadima.
Abang then withdrew Faisal’s bail, ordered his detention, and ordered that his trial be held in his absence when the prosecution claimed he had jumped bail.
After failing to produce Faisal, the judge ordered the surety to lose the property he used as a bail bond to the Federal Government.