Ismaila Mustapha, popularly known as Mompha, took to his Instagram page to express his response following a significant development in his ongoing legal case. On Monday, September 18, a Lagos Special Offences Court in Ikeja admitted a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as evidence against him. The report implicated his iPhone in fraudulent activities.

According to reports by The Guardian, the trial judge, Mojisola Dada, accepted this FBI report during Mompha’s trial in absentia. He faces allegations of money laundering brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It’s worth recalling that on January 22, 2022, the EFCC arraigned Mompha and his company, Ismalob Global Investment, on eight counts of N6 billion money laundering. At that time, Mompha pleaded not guilty to all charges and was initially granted bail. However, the court later revoked his bail due to his absence during the trial.

During the latest court proceedings, the EFCC’s counsel, Sulaiman Suleiman, presented documents that included a letter from the EFCC to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and a report from the FBI. The defendant’s counsel, Kolawole Salami, objected to the admissibility of these documents from the United States Consulate, arguing that they lacked certification as true copies and should not be admitted.

However, the trial judge overruled Salami’s objection, affirming the prosecution’s position that the documents were original and did not require certification. During cross-examination by the defense counsel, Ayorinde Solademi, an FBI agent working at the Legal Attaché Office of the FBI in Nigeria, revealed that he retrieved an iPhone belonging to Mompha using a Faraday bag. The FBI’s forensic analysis uncovered that Mompha’s iPhone had been used to send account details to a United Arab Emirates (UAE) telephone number, search for Swift Codes of a bank, and had a compromised Microsoft 365 account.

Solademi further informed the court that the FBI’s analysis revealed that Mompha’s iPhone had been employed to change payment delivery from cheque to wire transfer after a third attempt. Following his testimony, Justice Dada adjourned the case for further hearing to November 1.

In response to these recent developments, Mompha criticized the EFCC, labeling them as the “most useless agency” in the government. His sentiments were shared in a post on his Instagram page