The Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Jikwoyi, Abuja, on Thursday convicted Haruna Mamuda and Sadiq Umar for parading themselves as officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in a scheme to defraud members of the public. 

Justice M. Zubairu delivered the conviction on a five-count charge bordering on impersonation, criminal conspiracy and unlawful representation, closing out a case that has exposed a wider fraud ring operating around Abuja since earlier in the year.

According to the charge sheet, Mamuda, Umar, who also goes by the alias Abubakar Hashimu Umar, and a third suspect, Salifu Olije Mustapha, conspired sometime in March 2026 to personate public servants by falsely presenting themselves as EFCC operatives, an offence contrary to Section 96 of the Penal Code Act and punishable under Section 132 of the same Act.

Mustapha is separately standing trial before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Court 21, Kubwa.

The case first came to public attention when the EFCC arraigned Mustapha, described as the group’s driver, before Justice A.I. Akobi in Kubwa on a four-count charge, after he pleaded guilty to ferrying his accomplices, dressed in fake EFCC operational uniforms, to Sheriff Plaza in Wuse II, Abuja, where they allegedly harassed motorists and extorted money from unsuspecting victims.

Investigators later identified Mamuda as the ringleader of the operation, a dismissed military officer who the EFCC said had leveraged his residual military bearing, forged identity documents and fake tactical gear to intimidate victims and evade detection for an extended period.

Thursday’s conviction of Mamuda and Umar marks the resolution of one strand of the wider prosecution, with Mustapha’s case still ongoing before a separate court in Kubwa. The EFCC has continued to warn members of the public to demand proper identification from anyone claiming to be an operative of the Commission, noting that genuine EFCC operations are rarely, if ever, conducted through roadside confrontations or unsolicited approaches to motorists.