Two Men Sentenced to 22 Years for Impersonating as EFCC Officials
An Ikeja Special Offences Court has sentenced Ugwu Chijioke and Ibrahim Adekunle to 22 years in prison for pretending to be officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe handed down the sentence, totaling 22 years and eight months, following a plea bargain agreement. The charges against them included impersonation, attempting to obtain property by false pretense, possession of fraudulent documents, and unlawfully wearing EFCC uniforms.
Specifically, each man received a seven-year sentence for counts one through three, one year for count four, and eight months for count five. However, the judge ruled that these sentences would run concurrently.
During the trial, EFCC counsel Mr. Abdulhamid Tukur reviewed the facts and urged the court to convict the defendants. Tukur explained that the men possessed false documents and used them to extort money from the public. Items seized from them at the time of arrest included fake EFCC ID cards, jackets, and a bogus court order allegedly from Mushin Magistrate Court.
In their defense, both convicts pleaded for leniency, expressing remorse and promising to avoid future criminal activity. The first defendant stated, “I am very sorry and I beg the EFCC to forgive me. I will never go back to any crime. I plead with the court to temper justice with mercy.” The second defendant echoed these sentiments, also asking for the court’s and EFCC’s forgiveness.
The EFCC cited that their actions violated Sections 8(b) and 11(3) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, as well as Section 79(1)(b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
