Court Jails Fake EFCC Operative

A Plateau State High Court on Thursday convicted and sentenced one Mohammed Umar, alias Terror, to 15 years in prison. Justice Yakubu Gyang Dakwak convicted him after finding him guilty of the charge for offences bordering on conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretence and impersonation. According to a statement by the Head, Media and Publicity, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Wilson Uwujaren, Umar was arrested in October 2008 following intelligence report that he had been posing as an operative of the commission. The statement read, “He was accused of extorting top government functionaries in Bauchi, Gombe and Sokoto States under the pretext that he had damning petitions against them. “He cajoled several of them into wiring funds into his account with a promise to help stop any investigations into the petitions.” Justice Dakwak said that the prosecution had proved the case against the accused beyond doubt and accordingly pronounced him guilty on all three counts. One of the three charges against the convict read, “”That you, Mohammed Umar and Mustapha Abdullahi (now at large), sometime in 2008 at Jos, Judicial Division of the High Court of Plateau State did agree among yourselves to commit an illegal act, to wit: Conspiracy to obtain money from a Special Assistant to the Bauchi State Governor by falsely pretending to hold the office of an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, as a Public Servant and in such assumed character did falsely pretend that you were in a position to compound an alleged case of illegal contract deals with some contractors and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006.”