Businessman Ismaila Mustapha, popularly known as Mompha, has doubled down on his criticisms of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), dismissing the agency as “jobless” and “useless” in a recent Instagram post.
Meteor Nigeria had reported that Mompha had sparked controversy with scathing remarks against the EFCC, labelling the agency as “useless” and corrupt.
The EFCC, responding to Mompha’s allegations, condemned his statements as baseless and aimed at undermining the agency’s integrity.
The agency through a statement issued by its Head of Media & Publicity, Dele Oyewale, challenged Mompha to provide concrete evidence to support his allegations of corruption within the agency.
Oyewale said, “The Commission is alarmed that the accused will abandon the platform offered by the court to launch a media war against it through spurious claims.
“If he believes that raising phantom accusations against the Commission will scare it from diligently prosecuting his case, he is mistaken as no amount of scaremongering will deter the Commission from pursuing the case to a logical conclusion.”
Responding to the EFCC’s statement to his initial post, Mompha wrote on Instagram, on Monday, “My attention has once again been drawn to the social media tantrum of the EFCC demanding that I prove corruption allegation against them.
“The fact that the commission, particularly their chairman, could stoop so low to respond to my post shows clearly how useless, jobless the EFCC is and how they waste taxpayers’ money on exchanging banters on social media.”
Mompha, who has been embroiled in legal battles over allegations of money laundering, criticized the EFCC for allegedly infringing on citizens’ rights during recent protests against the commission’s actions.
He accused the EFCC of deploying armed personnel to disrupt lawful demonstrations and conducting illegal night raids that allegedly resulted in the assault of innocent citizens.
He said, “Now, I won’t bother to dwell on the trumped-up charges that were cooked up against me for personal gains by some of their corrupt officials and mere media trial because the fact speaks for itself but will rather dwell on how useless this commission under the leadership of the Chairman.
“Because why will the EFCC on Friday, 5th of July, 2024 step outside of their constitutional duty and litter armed men on the streets of Lagos and Abuja all in the name of preventing citizens from protesting against the corruption being displayed by the EFCC, thereby infringing on their fundamental right to lawfully protest and preventing innocent citizens from going about their lawful business.
“Another example is beating up innocent citizens during their illegal and night raids ( we all saw what happened in Ondo state and recently in Lagos which the commission reluctantly admitted on its social media platform) useless they are again they will reply to me again and I will be waiting with more proof.”
Regarding his legal case, Mompha challenged the EFCC’s claims of overwhelming evidence against him, questioning the identity of the alleged mastermind behind the money laundering accusations.
He asserted, ‘Now back to my case, the EFCC claimed they have “overwhelming evidence of my involvement in money laundering”, however, the question is; who is this faceless person I laundered money for?; does the person not have a name?; did you mention the name of the person in the trumped-up charges before the court?
“Your commission is clearly the one drowning and clutching to any straw when they quickly rushed to the media to post one side of the evidence of your witness in court when he was yet to be cross-examined just to gain social media trend with my name. Whereas all he said in court were lies with no evidential proof, which would all come to light on the next court date.”
Mompha concluded his post by asserting his readiness to confront any further responses from the EFCC, suggesting that more evidence supporting his claims would be revealed in due course.
The EFCC has yet to respond to Mompha’s latest allegations.
Mompha, a prominent figure on social media known for showcasing luxury lifestyles, has been a subject of EFCC investigations and legal proceedings since his arrest in 2019 on charges related to alleged internet fraud and money laundering activities.
