Sources told SaharaReporters that certain individuals impersonating EFCC officials pay bribes of up to N10 million to top officials within the agency in exchange for their assistance.
While there appears to be a rise in the number of EFCC impersonators being apprehended, it is understood that many others manage to evade detection and continue their illicit activities unchecked.
“The case of impersonation of EFCC officials is aided by EFCC’s top people,” an inside source told SaharaReporters.
“Some of top officials of the EFCC charge up to N10 million to aide impersonators,” another source said.
However, Mr Dele Oyewale, the EFCC spokesman denied that top officials of the agency are involved in such criminal activities in an interview with SaharaReporters on Sunday.
Mr Oyewale said, “To even insinuate that it is the top officials of the organisation that are aiding the impersonators…. No way! It is not possible for them to do that.
“Anybody that is insinuating that should provide proof. The way we operate, we are accountable.”
“What will be the purpose? Do you know how enumerated the EFCC personnel are? So what would be the benefit of aiding the impersonators?” he asked.
On June 6, 2024, an Ikeja Special Offences Court sentenced two men, Ugwu Chijioke and Ibrahim Adekunle, to prison for impersonating EFCC officials.
Justice Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe sentenced the duo to 46 years in prison following their plea bargain agreement to five counts bordering on impersonation, attempt to obtain property, possession of documents containing false pretence and unlawfully wearing of the EFCC uniform.
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.
Also, in June, the Enugu Zonal Directorate of the EFCC arraigned one Nweke Izuchukwu Jude before Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court in Independence Layout, Enugu State for allegedly impersonating EFCC officers.
Jude was arraigned on two counts bordering on impersonation and obtaining N1.1 million by false pretence.
One of the counts accused Nweke Izuchukwu Jude of obtaining the amount from one Justin Chidozie Chukwukere after fraudulently presenting himself as “an officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, a pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act”.
The matter was adjourned to October 9, 2024 for trial while the defendant was remanded at Enugu State Correctional facility pending the perfection of the bail conditions.
In May, the police in Nasarawa State arrested four suspects for impersonating EFCC officials.
The suspects, posing as EFCC officials, allegedly targeted and harassed young Nigerians suspected of internet fraud, extorting large sums of money from them. Their latest operation occurred in Nasarawa State, where they raided a student hostel at the Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa, abducting one of the students.
The community swiftly alerted the police, who promptly set up a series of roadblocks.
The thorough search efforts by the police forced the impersonators to abandon their vehicle and victim, fleeing on foot. In the ensuing chaos, an angry mob managed to apprehend one of the fake operatives, who was subsequently lynched.
Despite attempts to save him, the individual succumbed to his injuries while receiving medical treatment.
Credit: SaharaReporters
