Two fake operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ugwu Chijioke and Ibrahim Adekunle, will have to spend 22 years and eight months in prison custody for impersonating as real EFCC officials with uniform and extorted money from the public in Lagos State.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that it was the judgment of the Ikeja Special Offences Court, which found them guilty and sentenced them accordingly.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe, sentenced the duo following their plea bargain agreement to the five counts bordering on impersonation, attempt to obtain property, possession of documents containing false pretence and unlawfully wearing of the EFCC uniforms.
The judge sentenced them to seven years each on count one to three, one year on count four and eight months on count five.
She however, ordered that the sentences should run concurrently.
Earlier, the EFCC counsel, Mr. Abdulhamid Tukur, in his review of facts, urged the Court to convict the defendants as charged and sentence accordingly.
Mr. Tukur submitted that the defendants had in their possession false documents to impersonate officials of the EFCC and extorted unsuspecting members of the public.
He said the items recovered from the defendants at the point of arrest included fake EFCC identity cards, jackets, and a Court order purported to have emanated from Mushin Magistrate Court.
The convicts, in their plea for mercy, urged the Court to temper justice with mercy and promised never to go to their vomits again.
“I am very sorry for the crime I pleaded guilty for, having been in the correctional facility for over a year now, I have learnt a lot.”
“I am very sorry and I beg the EFCC to forgive me and I will never go back to any crime. I plead with the Court to temper justice with mercy,” the first defendant said.
“My lord, I am already guilty of this case and I beg this Court to temper justice with mercy
“I also beg the EFCC to forgive me,” the second defendant said.
According to the EFCC, the offences contravened Sections 8(b), 11(3) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and Section 79(1) (b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
They were moved into custody at the correctional center at Ikoyi, Lagos State, where they will spend those years as pronounced by the Court.