The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested Faisal Maina, son of former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, and handed him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Security sources disclosed that Faisal was arrested after intelligence indicated that he had secretly returned to Nigeria.

The sources said DSS operatives tracked him to the Karsana area of Abuja, where he was apprehended before being transferred to the EFCC.

Faisal had been on the run since 2020, following his arraignment by the EFCC on a three-count charge bordering on money laundering. He reportedly violated his bail conditions and left the country.

In October 2021, the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted him on the charges and sentenced him to 14 years’ imprisonment. The trial judge held that the EFCC had established that Faisal operated a fictitious account with United Bank for Africa through which his father allegedly laundered ₦58.1 million.

According to the court, the money was deposited into an account operated in the name of Alhaji Faisal Farm 2 and withdrawn by Faisal and his father between October 2013 and June 2019.

In November 2022, the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction but reduced the sentence from 14 years to seven years, ruling that the maximum sentence should not have been imposed on a first-time offender.

The court had ordered that Faisal be arrested wherever he was found in Nigeria and remanded in a correctional facility to serve his sentence. It also directed the Federal Government to take lawful steps to secure his extradition if he was found outside the country.

His transfer to the EFCC is expected to facilitate the enforcement of the court’s judgment.

Faisal’s father, Abdulrasheed Maina, previously served a prison sentence over the laundering of pension funds. He was released earlier in 2026 but was subsequently declared wanted over an alleged case involving the receipt of stolen property.

The latest arrest brings Faisal back into the custody of Nigerian authorities after several years away from the country.