Justice O. O. Abike-Fadipe of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja has sentenced Ugwu Pascal Chijioke and Ibrahim Sadiq Adekunle to 46 years in prison for impersonating operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and executing a fake court order.
The duo was apprehended in May 2021 at New Horizon Estate, Lekki, Lagos, following credible intelligence received by the Commission while they were conducting an illegal operation.
Items recovered from them at the point of arrest included fake EFCC identity cards, jackets, and a court order purported to have emanated from Mushin Magistrate Court.
They were subsequently arraigned on October 12, 2021, for an amended five-count charge, to which they initially pleaded not guilty.
The convicts were re-arraigned by the Lagos State Zonal Command of the EFCC on an amended five-count charge bordering on impersonation, attempt to obtain property, possession of documents containing false pretence, and unlawfully wearing the uniform of the EFCC.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Ugwu Pascal Chijioke and Ibrahim Sadiq Adekunle, on or about the 12th day of May, 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, by false pretence and with intent to defraud, attempted to obtain property from one Oriyomi Johnson under the pretext that the ‘Chief Magistrate Court, Lagos State Judiciary, Mushin, Lagos’ issued an Order to the effect that the property located at New Horizon Estate, Lekki- Ikate, Lagos be seized and the said apartment sealed pending the arrival of the said Oriyomi Johnson, which representation you knew to be false and committed an offence of attempt to obtain property by false pretense contrary to Sections 8(b) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section11(3) of the same Act.”
Another count reads: “That you, Ugwu Pascal Chijioke and Ibrahim Sadiq Adekunle, on or about the 12th day of May, 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court not being a person holding any office in or authority of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, wore a jacket bearing the official mark of the Commission, which was calculated to convey the impression that you held such authority and committed an offence of unlawfully wearing the uniform of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission contrary to Section 79(1) (b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.”
Chijioke and Adekunle pleaded guilty to the charges when they were read to them, hence, the prosecution counsel, Abdulhamid Lamido Tukur, gave a review of the facts of the case to prove the guilt of the defendants.
Tukur, thereafter, urged the court to convict the defendants as charged and sentence them accordingly.
In his ruling, Justice Abike-Fadipe found them guilty as charged on counts one, two, three, four and five.
The defendants, who were given an opportunity to address the court, pleaded for mercy, but Justice Abike-Fadipe sentenced the defendants to seven years on counts one to three each, one year on count four and eight months on count five.
The court said that the sentences are to run concurrently.
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