A fake Economic and Financial Crimes commission, EFCC agent, Mohammed Umar, has been slammed with a 15-year jail sentence for impersonation, conspiracy and obtaining money through false pretence by a Plateau State High Court sitting in Jos.
Umar, popularly known as Terror, was sentenced by Justice Yakubu Gyang Dakwa, having found him liable to the charges pressed against him by the EFCC.
The suspect was arrested in October 2008 following intelligence report that he had been posing as an operative of the EFCC and extorting top government functionaries in Bauchi, Gombe and Sokoto States under the pretext that he had damning petitions against them.
Umar cajoled several of them into wiring funds into his account with a promise to help stop any investigations into the petitions.
He is reported to have connived with one Mustspha Abdullahi, now at large, in 2008 and swindled the Special Assistant to the Bauchi State Governor by falsely pretending to hold the office of an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. [Vanguard]
According to the prosecution, the offence is punishable under Sections 8(a) and 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act 2006”.
In his ruling, Justice Dakwak affirmed that the prosecution had proved the case against the accused beyond doubt and accordingly pronounced him guilty on all three counts.
