Court remands couple, others who allegedly impersonated Katsina Gov’s wife, adjourns case until March 17
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A Kaduna State High Court has ordered the remand of a husband and wife and two others for allegedly defrauding a bureau de change (BDC) of N197 million with the alleged stolen identity of the wife of Katsina Governor.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which arraigned them before Judge Amina Bello, alleged that Abubakar Sadiq and his wife Hafsat Lawal, alongside Abdullahi Bala and Ladani Akindele, committed six offences involving obtaining money by pretence, money laundering, and stealing.
A statement issued by the EFCC alleged the suspects registered two SIM cards in the name of Katsina Governor’s wife and used the SIMs to contact the Chairman of Unity Bank as one of the Governor’s wives to get the telephone number of the BDC operator.
The suspects allegedly then used the number to contact the BDC operator claiming they had United States dollars to sell to him and requested that he deposit N197 million for the exchange.
“Investigations showed that Hafsat contacted the petitioners as one of the wives of the current governor of Katsina State, Mallam 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 to sell to them,” the statement said.
“Further investigations showed that Hafsat’s husband, Sadiq, provided his wife with two SIM cards and registered the same with the TrueCaller app 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 a dollar equivalent of the money, $118,300, to offer him.”
According to the EFCC, upon receiving the deposit, the suspects allegedly shared the money among themselves and laundered it through various means.
Following a report of the incident by the victim, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested the four suspects and transferred them to the EFCC and were subsequently arraigned on Monday.
The charge sheet read in part:
“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 only from Aminu Usman which money you caused to be paid into the Taj Bank Plc account number 0009914725 belonging to Abdullahi Bala under the pretence that you had the sum of $53,300 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 when the counts were read to them and EFCC counsel asked the court to remand them.
The statement added: “Counsel for the 1st and 2nd defendants, M.S Katu, SAN; counsel for the 3rd defendant, Jazuli Mustapha, and counsel for 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 because they were not ripe for hearing. In response, all the defence counsel prayed to the court to allow for an oral bail application.
“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.”
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