Instagram celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha, popularly known as Mompha, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of extortion.
Mompha is facing N6 billion money laundering trial before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Ikeja Special Offences Court.
He was declared wanted by the EFCC on Wednesday, for jumping bail. The anti-graft agency, in a tweet, urged members of the public with information on his whereabouts to speak up.
But Mompha, in a statement, titled “Mompha Wanted By The EFCC – The Truth”, posted on his verified Instagram page on Thursday, explained his position of the ongoing development.
The statement read: “After my arrest and arraignment on the first case at the federal high court Lagos, on the 10th of December, 2021, the court gave me judgement and ordered EFCC to release my wrist watches and other valuables in their custody to me for being unlawfully seized.
“Being a bitter agency, the EFCC in dissatisfaction with the judgement of the court on the release of my wristwatches came up with another trumped-up charge against me.
“On the 10th of January, 2022, while I was at their office at Okotie Eboh to retrieve my wristwatches in compliance with the judgement of the court and immediately after collecting my wristwatches, they held me down at their office and charged me to court the following day on the frivolous charges.
“I was arraigned before a familiar Judge to the EFCC and, in effect, I was given a very difficult bail to meet, as a result of which I ended up spending over two months in prison custody while making efforts to meet the difficult bail.
“After several attempts to meet the bail conditions failed, I successfully applied for the bail conditions to be reduced, which eventually led to my release.
“Upon my release, I travelled outside Nigeria to check on the welfare and wellbeing of my family and returned to Nigeria shortly, only for the EFCC Corrupt lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, rather than focus on establishing his criminal case against me along with the EFCC operative, Kaina Garba, chose to capitalise on the fact that I travelled to blackmail me into entering a plea bargain.
“Else he would inform the Judge I travelled and ensure my bail is revoked, therefore, making me have no choice but to dance to his tune.
“I initially refused, but after so much blackmail and intimidation by Rotimi Oyedepo, I succumbed and was told to pay N142 million to EFCC as compensation and also sign for a one-year imprisonment sentence.
“I was uncomfortable, and they thereafter, reduced it to N40 million and one-year imprisonment. When it became obvious to EFCC that I wasn’t going to sign the plea bargain and play to their game, they informed the Judge I travelled.
“The Judge without any concrete evidence and disregard of the fact that I was never absent in court, revoked my bail, but fortunately the Judge again released me on a temporary basis, and I was asked to appear in court a week after.
“All these facts especially the blackmail and intimidation by the EFCC made me come to the conclusion that I cannot get justice within this corrupt laden system, as the EFCC was hell-bent on extorting money from me for a crime I never committed, as well as the Judge, who was ready to send me back to prison custody without any evidence or basis.
“More importantly, to show the EFCC is a charade, the so-called Nappy I was alleged to have engaged in fraudulent activities with was never declared wanted, the EFCC extorted money, cars and landed properties from Nappy, but rather declared me wanted to generate cheap publicity.
“I was never involved in any illegal activity or crime, I only paid money to Nappy in the normal course of my BDC business, I never knew whether he was involved in any form of illegal activities or not.
“Finally, it was obvious entering the plea bargain with the EFCC, which they wanted to force me into at all cost, means I would be convicted for a crime I did not commit and therefore, become an ex-convict and this is what EFCC set out to achieve with me to enable them to generate more social media publicity, hence the desperation in falsely declaring me wanted and misleading the public.
“I want the general public to know I am not wanted by the EFCC, but rather the court-issued bench warrant for my production in court on the next court sitting, I didn’t steal from anyone or involved in any money laundering, still don’t know why EFCC are so jobless that they want to tarnish my image. Last last na international court to settle this matter @officialefcc.”
CULLED: THEWILL