Crime
Mompha gives EFCC 14-day ultimatum to apologise for defamatory statement
Popular Instagram celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha a.k.a ‘Mompha’, has warned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to apologize for publishing a defamatory statement about him.
Mompha stated this through his lawyer, Gboyega Oyewole, who cautioned that failure to comply within 24 hours will lead to a legal action by his team.
Mompha’s lawyer alleged that the EFCC’s spokesman Wilson Uwujaren made a libellous and defamatory statement about his client.
The counsel stated that Mompha is not an internet fraudster as claimed by the anti-graft agency had nothing to do with convicted Hamza Koudeih (HK).
Last week, Justice Tijjani Garba Ringim of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, convicted and sentenced Koudeih, a Lebanese, to one-year imprisonment.
Koudeih and Kayode Phillips were arraigned by the EFCC on November 28, 2019, before Justice Muslim Hassan on a 25-count bordering on conspiracy and money laundering.
Uwujaren described the duo and Mompha as high-valued targets in Organised Cyber Syndicate Network who engaged in various cyber crimes.
In one of the counts, EFCC said Phillips (a.k.a Voice of the King) and Koudeih (a.k.a. HK), in May 2019, converted the aggregate sum of $7,069,000; £1 million and €80,000, part of proceeds of fraud.
Their offence was contrary to Sections 18 (a), 15 (2)(d) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2015 and punishable under section 15(3) of the same Act.
Uwujaren disclosed that Koudeih approached the prosecution for a plea bargain and that EFCC, through its counsel Rotimi Oyedepo, filed the agreement with an amended charge on September 8, 2021.
Delivering judgment, Justice Ringim sent Koudeih to prison but gave him an option N1 milllion fine.
He ordered forfeiture of HK’s N100 million in a bank account owned by CHK Property Investment Ltd; Mercedes Benz GLE43; two iPhones and an HP Desktop computer to the Federal Government.
In his letter, Oyewole told the EFCC that nowhere in any of the charges against Koudeih was Mompha mentioned nor found to be an accomplice.
The lawyer informed the commission that Mompha has never been convicted of any crime in Nigeria even though he faces charges on offences bordering on operating a Bureau de Change (BDC) without a licence.
“It is embarrassing that an organisation of EFCC’s level would hastily defame a suspect, who to their knowledge is being prosecuted by the organisation and has not been convicted of any crime known to law in Nigeria.
“We wish to request that the organisation through its image maker Wilson Uwajaren retract the blanket statement against our client forthwith and with the same publicity as was given to his previous press release on the matter.
“If you fail to heed the request of our client within 14 days of the receipt of this letter, we shall be constrained to proceed to the court of law against your organisation for exemplary damages for injurious falsehood”, the letter added.
