EFCC Arrests Mompha’s Alleged Lebanese Accomplice In His Home With Charms

Mompha
Instagram celebrity, Mompha

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested a Lebanese whose name has been given as Hamza Koudeih alongside two others suspected to be accomplices of Dubai-based Nigerian social media celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha a.k.a Mompha.

Koudeih was arrested by EFCC after a three-hour stand-off at his N1.8 billion luxury apartment in the 33-story Eko Atlantic Pearl Tower, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Read Also: Actress Nnaji Charity Pays Mompha ‘Courtesy Visit’ At EFCC Custody (Video)

Reports have it that the Lebanese and his wife refused to open the door to their apartment and also refused to respond to appeals by the building’s chief security officer.

The suspect, as well as Mompha and other arrested suspects, are alleged to be kingpins of a network of cybercriminals who laundered N33 billion through three firms.

When EFCC operatives eventually gained access into the apartment the man’s wife claimed he had escaped through the window even though they lived in the topmost floor.

Koudeih was found hiding in the ceiling and a fire-proof safe which had in it different charms and talismans in calabashes.

“Our officials knew that he was still inside and they were even hoping to persuade him not to jump out through the window because it would be suicide,” EFCC Lagos Zonal Head, Mr. Mohammed Rabo, who confirmed the arrest, told The Nation.

Two luxury cars were recovered from the suspect who claimed the charms were his “prayer objects”.

 Rhe Lagos zonal head of the EFCC, Mohammed Rabo said the operation that led to Koudeih’s arrest was “an offshoot of the collaboration between the EFCC and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” but that Koudeih was arrested based on “purely EFCC intelligence”.

Rabo added: “Actionable intelligence received from local and international law enforcement agencies had revealed that Koudeih and Mompha alongside their collaborators are high valued targets in Organised Cyber Syndicate Network (OCSN).

“Investigations have also revealed that Mompha uses a firm known as Ismalob Global Investments Limited to perpetrate about N14 billion money laundering while Koudeih also operate two firms namely: THK Services Limited and CHK properties Limited to launder about N19 billion.”