EFCC Charges Fake Pension Staff For Duping Abuja Resident

The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Kubwa, Abuja, on Thursday revoked the bail of one Emmanuel Ibenyen who is being tried for allegedly pretending to be a staff of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) and using the same to lure elderly people into paying money to process their pension.

The EFCC charged him and Chigozie Iheme before the court for Advance Fee Fraud, among other charges.

But when the matter came up on Thursday, Ibenyen was not present.

According to the antigraft agency, the nominal complainant (Dr. Daniel A. Laosebikan) had in 2018, petitioned the EFCC upon realizing that he had been deceived into putting his money ( N425,000) into the wrong hands.

“The facts of the case revealed that sometime in 2016, the defendants lured the nominal complainant in this case into transferring the sums of N400,000 and N25, 100 to designated accounts with Guaranty Trust Bank and Diamond Bank respectively under false pretense that the money was to be used to facilitate the processing of his pension at the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) office in Abuja whereas the 2nd Defendant caused his premises to be used by fraudsters to perpetrate the fraud, develop a website and to acquire other technological devices for the purpose of setting up a partnership in a company for mutual benefit,” the EFCC’s court processes’ showed.

During the proceedings, Ibenyen’s lawyer, Uche A. explained that even though the court had graciously granted his client bail, his whereabouts were not known to him.

He accused the EFCC of keeping his client in custody yet denying he is with them.

He based his argument on the fact that the Commission was interrogating his client on another crime.

“We are in the dark as per whether he is with the Commission or has absconded since you granted him bail.

The complainant’s lawyer, Anthony I. confirmed that the first defendant is being investigated by the EFCC on another internet-related crime.

However, he added that the EFCC also gave him administrative bail but he ran away and never came back, leading the commission to freeze the bank account of his sister-in-law who stood as his surety.

“Ordinarily, this is for the continuation of trial within trial.

“His lawyer showed me a letter from the bank fraud section of the EFCC; it was addressed to his sister-in-law who stood as surety for him in a different matter.

“He was given a date to come back but he jumped bail, sometimes last week,” he said, urging the court to revoke the first defendant’s bail.

In her ruling, Justice K. N. Ogbonnaya held that the first defendant, having jumped two bails, must have known what he was doing.

She also said that the fact that the EFCC reached out to his surety, is proof that he was not in its custody.

“The court grants the application to revoke the bail granted to the (first) defendant because that is the right thing to do.

“Matter adjourned to 7 June 2022 for the continuation of trial,” she ruled.