Whistleblowers jailed three months for giving EFCC false information

Three persons have been sentenced to three months imprisonment for providing false information to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The trio appeared before O.A. Musa, justice of the federal capital territory (FCT) high court sitting in Bwari on Thursday.

Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesman, disclosed this in a statement.

According to Uwujaren, the judge convicted Lawal Umar, a 45-year-old property agent; Alexander Danjuma, a 43-year-old mechanic, and Theophilus Omambala, a 47-year-old engineer, for giving false information to EFCC operatives at the Abuja zonal office.

“The defendants allegedly gave false whistle blowing information to operatives of the EFCC that monies were stashed in the residence of one Audu Innocent Ogbe, located at Lugbe, a suburb of Abuja,” the agency’s spokesman said.

The three men were said to have earlier pleaded not guilty upon arraignment, but “at today’s hearing, the defendants changed their pleas to ‘guilty’, having entered a plea agreement with the prosecution”.

Aliyu Usman, prosecution counsel, thereafter, urged the court to convict the defendants, but A.I. Na-Jirgi, counsel to the defendants, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy.

According to the EFCC, Na-Jirgi said the convicts were “first-time offenders and had become remorseful”.

The judge therefore sentenced them to prison, with the option of N50,000 fine each.