On Friday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission testified before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Ikeja Special Offences Court in Lagos, claiming that social media celebrity Ismaila Mustapha, also known as Mompha, had defied the court order by travelling to Dubai with a new international passport.
Mompha and his company, Ismalob Global Investment Ltd, were accused with money laundering on January 12 by the EFCC.
Mompha was ordered to surrender his international passport to the court on March 28 after his bail was cut from N200 million to N25 million.
EFCC counsel Rotimi Oyedepo informed the court during Friday’s sitting that the parties had not reached an agreement, but that the defendant had hired an Emirate Airline and went to Abuja after submitting his international passport on the court’s order.
“My lord granted bail to the defendant and asked him to surrender his international passport,” Oyedepo stated.
“We learned from reliable sources that the defendant holds a passport with the number D50084304, which was issued in Abuja in July 2021 and would expire on June 30, 2031.
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“According to our partner’s information, the defendant hired Emirates and flew from Ghana to Dubai on April 11th, and the passport that the defendant used to travel is not the one that was provided to this honourable court my lord.”
“The defendant did not travel through Nigeria, and the current issue is that the defendant has a fresh passport, which he used to travel after my lord barred him from doing so.”
Gboyega Oyewole, the defence attorney, opposed to the prosecution’s statement, arguing that the EFCC should write to Nigeria Immigration to verify the assertion.
“I have communicated with the prosecution over this my lord, and when he called, I told him that there was a certain person who was meant to pay the N25 million,” Oyewole said.
“When the money arrived in his account, it was frozen.” The surety contacted the defendant, who informed him that he had travelled for his own safety. However, the individual has a link and believes that the defendant has broken a court order.
“My lord, the EFCC should write to Immigration to determine whether my client left the country or not.”
This is a superior court of record, sir, and I recommend that an application be filed because there is a great deal of ambiguity here that should be documented.
“Let Immigration react if a second passport is available. He cannot enter the nation because his residency permit to live in Dubai has already been presented to the court.”
The defendant was handed a photocopy of the passport and denied signing it.
Following that, the EFCC counsel requested that the matter be put on hold for ten minutes so that the EFCC could confer with the defence lawyer.
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Following then, the defence attorney requested that the court give him one week to investigate the prosecution’s claim.
“We’ve had internal discussions and also spoken with the prosecution,” Oyewole added.
“In the interests of justice, we’ve agreed with the prosecution to grant me one week to verify the facts, because I need to verify the truth, my lord.”
The prosecution did not object to the defence counsel’s position.
The case was delayed to June 16, 2022, for further consideration of the bail application, and the defendant was ordered to be held in the custody of the defence attorney.
