EFCC Drags Legal Practitioner To Court Over Alleged False Claims

The Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a lawyer, Steve Adamu, before Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court, sitting in Kaduna State, on a one-count charge of false information peddling.

The charge reads: “That you, Barrister Steve Adamu (m), on or about the 15th day of September, 2022, in Kaduna, Kaduna State, within the jurisdiction of the Honourable Court, committed an offence, to wit: wilfully gave false information to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which information was used to carry out an investigation on your complaint to the Commission, which information you knew to be false, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 16(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, and punishable under Section 16(2) of the same Act.

He pleaded “not guilty”, prompting the prosecution counsel, M.E. Eimonye, to ask the court for a trial date, while the defence counsel urged the court to grant the defendant bail.

Justice Khobo, thereafter, ordered the remand of the defendant in the Nigerian Correctional Centre and adjourned the matter till December 20, 2025, for the hearing of the bail application.

The defendant’s road to the dock began with his petition to the Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the EFCC, in which he had alleged that his landlord had no visible means of livelihood, yet continually acquired costly automobiles and developed landed properties all over town.

The investigations by the Commission proved the allegations to be false and malicious, prompting his arrest and prosecution.