{"id":128449,"date":"2026-07-17T09:40:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=128449"},"modified":"2026-07-17T09:40:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:40:29","slug":"court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>By Lizzy Chirkpi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Jikwoyi, Abuja, has convicted two men, Haruna Mamuda and Sadiq Umar, for impersonating operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice M. Zubairu convicted the defendants on Thursday after they pleaded guilty to a five-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy, impersonation and unlawful representation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The charges were brought against the duo by the EFCC, which alleged that they conspired with one Salifu Olije Mustapha, who is currently standing trial before an FCT High Court in Kubwa, to falsely present themselves as EFCC officers and use the assumed identities to deceive members of the public.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first count read in part: &#8220;That you, Haruna Mamuda, Sadiq Umar (a.k.a. Abubakar Hashimu Umar), and Salifu Olije Mustapha&#8230; sometime in March 2026&#8230; did conspire among yourselves to commit an offence, to wit: personating a public servant by falsely presenting yourselves as officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another charge specifically accused Umar of impersonating an EFCC operative and exploiting the false identity to defraud unsuspecting victims.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;That you, Sadiq Umar (a.k.a. Abubakar Hashimu Umar)&#8230; falsely personated an officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and in that assumed character defrauded unsuspecting members of the public,&#8221; the charge stated.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Following the defendants&#8217; guilty plea, prosecution counsel, R.U. Adagba, urged the court to convict them in line with the charges.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Counsel to the first defendant, Anamegbumam Innocent, appealed for leniency, telling the court that his client had shown remorse, cooperated with investigators and was a family man with children.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Similarly, counsel to the second defendant, Bemdo Asan, urged the court to temper justice with mercy, arguing that Umar had no previous criminal conviction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In response, Adagba asked the court to impose an appropriate sentence, stressing the need for deterrence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;My Lord, the first defendant is a dismissed member of the Nigerian Army. His sentence will serve as a deterrent to the society at large. I also want the court to factor in the judgment that they were brought in from the Department of State Services (DSS), where they are being charged for terrorism financing and kidnapping,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">After hearing the submissions of counsel, Justice Zubairu adjourned the matter until July 22, 2026, for sentencing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The judge also ordered that the two convicts remain in the custody of the EFCC pending the delivery of their sentences.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lizzy Chirkpi The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Jikwoyi, Abuja, has convicted two men, Haruna Mamuda and Sadiq Umar, for impersonating operatives of the Economic and&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lizzy Chirkpi The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Jikwoyi, Abuja, has convicted two men, Haruna Mamuda and Sadiq Umar, for impersonating operatives of the Economic and&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-17T08:40:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1314\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-17T08:40:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/\"},\"wordCount\":417,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/\",\"name\":\"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public - Pointblank News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-17T08:40:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1314},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\",\"name\":\"Pointblank News\",\"description\":\"Just the news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\",\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Our Reporter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public - Pointblank News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public - Pointblank News","og_description":"By Lizzy Chirkpi The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Jikwoyi, Abuja, has convicted two men, Haruna Mamuda and Sadiq Umar, for impersonating operatives of the Economic and&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/","og_site_name":"Pointblank News","article_published_time":"2026-07-17T08:40:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1314,"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Our Reporter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Our Reporter","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/"},"author":{"name":"Our Reporter","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"headline":"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public","datePublished":"2026-07-17T08:40:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/"},"wordCount":417,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/","name":"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public - Pointblank News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp","datePublished":"2026-07-17T08:40:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1001280761-scaled-e1784229454974.webp","width":1920,"height":1314},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-convicts-two-for-impersonating-efcc-officers-defrauding-public\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Court Convicts Two for Impersonating EFCC Officers, Defrauding Public"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/","name":"Pointblank News","description":"Just the news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c","name":"Our Reporter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Our Reporter"},"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128451,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128449\/revisions\/128451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}