The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,
has arraigned a husband and wife, Baba Sule Abubakar Sadiq and Hafsat
Kabir Lawal, alongside two others, Abdullahi Bala and Ladani Akindele, before
Justice Amina Bello of the Kaduna State High Court for obtaining money by false
pretence, money laundering and stealing to the tune of N197,750,000 (One
Hundred and Ninety Seven Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira.
They were arraigned on six-count charges on
Monday, March 9, 2025.
Specifically, the defendants allegedly colluded
among themselves and defrauded their victims through different
guises, including impersonating the wife of the Governor of Katsina
State, Fatima Dikko Radda.
The defendants were initially arrested by officers of
the Department of State Services, DSS and subsequently transferred to the EFCC
when it was clear that their offences were financial crimes in nature.
One of the charges reads “That you Hafsat Kabir Lawal,
Babasule Abubakar Sadiq, Abdullahi Bala, Ladani Akindele Ayodele sometimes in
December 2024 at Kaduna within the jurisdiction of this honourable court with
intent to defraud did obtain the sum of N89,000,000.00 Eighty Nine Million
Naira Only from Aminu Usman which money you caused to be paid in to the Taj
Bank plc account number 0009914725 belonging to Abdullahi Bala under the false
pretence that you had the sum of $53,300 Fifty three thousand Three Hundred
United State Dollars to exchange for the Naira equivalent which pretence you
knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1)
of the advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act. 2006 punishment
under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.”
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges when
they were read to them.
In view of their pleas, prosecution counsel, Bright C
Ogbonna prayed the court for a trial date and for the defendants to be remanded
in a Correctional Facility.
Counsel to the 1st and 2nd defendants,
M.S Katu, SAN, counsel to the 3rd defendant,
?Jazuli Mustapha and counsel to the 4th defendant,
Paul A. Okachi informed the court that they had filed and served their
various applications for the bail of their clients and that they were
ready to proceed.
Ogbonna vehemently opposed the applications on the
grounds that they were not ripe for hearing. In response, all the defence
counsel prayed the court to allow for an oral application for bail.
After listening to the submissions and arguments made
by both parties, Justice Bello agreed with the prosecution and consequently
remanded the defendants in a Correctional Facility and adjourned the
matter till March 17, 2025 for hearing of bail applications.
Investigations showed that Hafsat contacted the
petitioners as one of the wives of the current governor of Katsina State, Malam
Dikko Radda. Using that guise, she allegedly obtained the sum of N89,000,000
and another N108,000,000 from a petitioner claiming to have $118,300 (One
Hundred and Eighteen Thousand Three Hundred Dollars) to sell to them.
Further investigations showed that Hafsat’s husband,
Sadiq( the second defendant) provided his wife with two sim cards and
registered the same with the True Caller as Fatima Dikko Radda. He then
allegedly contacted the fourth defendant, Ladani Akindele who was his former
colleague at a new generation bank, and asked him to provide him with the
contact number of the Chairman of Unity Bank, Hafiz Bashir through whom he got
the contact number of the petitioner who is a bureau de change operator.
Hafsat thereafter contacted the petitioner,
Aminu Usman and collected a total sum of N197,750,000 from him,
claiming that she had dollar equivalent of the money ($118,300) to offer
him.
The money was said to have been deposited into the
bank account of the 3rd defendant, Abdullahi Bala, provided by the first
defendant, and the money was allegedly distributed among the four
defendants and laundered through various means.
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