EFCC arrests fake Magu

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has arrested one Felix Idowu for allegedly impersonating its Acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu.

In a statement on Wednesday, Spokesman of the commission, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said the suspect was a real estate agent and the graduate of Political Science.

Uwujaren said Idowu was found with documents which had the forged signature of the EFCC boss and would be charged to court as soon as the investigation was concluded.

“Prior to his arrest, the EFCC received intelligence report that the suspect, while posing as the operative of the EFCC, requested for money in order ‘to kill’ a petition purportedly written against the complainant.

“The EFCC swung into action by asking the complainant to play along. In the process, Idowu was asked to liaise with the complainant’s personal assistant, who was an EFCC undercover agent.

“While interacting with the undercover agent, the suspect was lured to a popular supermarket in Wuse 2, Abuja, where he was arrested on Monday, April 30.

“Upon search of his Lexus EX 350 car, a lot of documents were recovered including the letter of investigation activities on a fake EFCC letter-head paper with ‘Ref No: CTGI/6/vol.1’.

“Also found was a letter of the petition written to EFCC with ‘EFCC stamp received’ bearing Magu’s forged signature,’’ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that impersonation of Magu and other officials of the EFCC by fraudsters has been a source of worry to the commission.

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The commission has issued several alerts in recent times to warn members of the public against fraudsters using Magu’s name for extortion.

The latest arrest came barely two years after the commission apprehended three suspects for a similar offence on Aug. 9, 2016.

On Sept. 16, 2016, a High Court sitting in Gombe sentenced one Muhammad Adamu to 14 years in prison for posing as an EFCC operative to extort the state’s Muslim Pilgrims’ Welfare Board.