By Eberechi Obinagwam
A businesswoman, Adaeze Onu, on Friday told a Lagos State High Court (Special Offences Tribunal) how a man, Aliyu Zakari, defrauded her N70 million worth of goods while he was a detainee of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2014.
Adaeze, a Lagos based businesswoman who deals in trolleys and bags, told Justice S. O. Solebo that her ordeal started when she met Zakari at the EFCC custody where she was also a detainee.
She said Aliyu introduced himself to her as a politician, merchant and youth leader in his state of Kano.
Aliyu told her that he was not in EFCC custody because he stole money but for his plan to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
She said four days after she was released from the EFCC custody, Aliyu started calling her from his detention cell to discuss business.
Her statements: “On the 18th of July 2014, EFCC officials came to my shop looking for my husband but he was not around. They arrested and detained me for four days. It was there I met Aliyu Zakari.
“He said he was not at the EFCC detention centre for any crime but because of a political issue. He said he wanted to decamp from PDP to APC but it did not go down well with PDP members.
“He said he was arrested on the day of his declaration to the APC by EFCC officials but assured me that on or before October 2014 he would be released.”
She said in one of his calls to her, he told her that the Kano State government is arranging a mass wedding for widows and that his company had won a contract to supply school bags, shoulder bags, pilot case to Kano State government and that he would want her to supply the items through his company since she deals on those items.
Adaeze said she supplied 500 traveling bags, 3,000 school bags but she could not afford the pilot cases and the shoulder bags because they were too much for her to supply.
“It was too much for me to supply so I told him that I can supply a certain quantity. He sent his boy by name Sofan on 27 August 2014.
“I supplied him with 275 sets of traveling bags worth eight million, eight hundred and ninety thousand, eight hundred Naira.
“When I told him, he was not happy. He said he wanted to do a contract with the government, that I should always have the goods they want so that the company will know that I am serious.
“So, I told him that if he can help me with money to get more, and he did. He said I should not give cash receipt to the drivers because he wanted to increase the prices, that I should leave only the waybill to them, which I did.
“After some days, he confirmed that the goods got to Kano safely. Before the goods were taken he instructed that I should remove all the cartons so that police will not disturb the drivers on the road, which I did.
“Later, Aliyu called and asked me to give Sofan the sum of N50,000 for the drivers as a deposit that he will instruct his boys to send me some money from Kano for the expenses.
“On the 9th of September 2014, he told me that he has a brother that supplies phone accessories. He sent his boy Sofan and I supplied phone worth N186,650 from a friend to him.
“This time, he asked me to put the receipt because it was for his brother so he can know the price to sell them.
“He made a deposit to my UBA account of N2.7 million. He said I should use it to clear off the logistics spent to take the goods to Kano.
“On September 17, 2014, he sent his boy for the 3rd supply of 3,000 shoulder bags, 250,000 sets of pilot cases. It was on this supply that the issue started.
“I sent to him and he confirmed that it has arrived Kano state government and it was worth seventy million, one hundred and thirty-six thousand four fifty naira.
“He assured me that his company ACL will pay me more than the amount by the second week of November 2014 because he would increase the prices of the items. That I will take my own and send the rest to his account.
“Then, on September 25, 2014, he asked me to send N300,000 to one Dongwuma. I told him that I cannot afford that but I can send N170,000. He gave me a name to use as the sender
“In November, he called that his company sent me 3 emails that I have not replied. I told him that they should resend it because I did not see any. They resent the email asking me for my company’s account. I did and they sent me a mail that they are working on my payment he also called to confirm.
“I called to know the exact date they would pay but he told me that a company’s staff died in a bomb blast in Kano that as it is now, that the company is mourning the loss that I should exercise patience.
“It took long and later he was not picking my calls then I resort to calling Sofan, his errand boy and he told me that my goods were not supplied to any Kano government that it is in Haj market in Kano that I should go there and see them myself if I think he was lying.
“At first, I thought it was all jokes because I believed so much in him but when it lingered, I traveled to Kano, that was in February 2015, to see things myself.
“I went there and pretended to be a buyer and I saw one of my goods in the market because that particular one ‘golden crown’ is only supplied by me.
“I collected their contact with the promise of coming back to buy more.
“I asked people around for the nearest EFCC office and they showed me. I met with the head of operations and explained everything. He brought a picture for me asking me if it was this Aliyu I was talking about, and I said yes.
“He told me that this man is a notorious fraudster that he is serving in Kano state prison. They asked me to write a petition and send to Abuja which I did.
“When I met him at Kano state prison, he was like “have you not been paid?” and I said no.
“I told him to give me an address of his company. He gave me, but I searched and searched with Keke couldn’t find the place.
“On my way back to Lagos, I stopped at Abuja, to submit my petition.
“On the 25th March 2015, I was called by the EFCC officials to come down to Lagos in respect of the petition I wrote against Aliyu. They assigned two officers to follow me to the market to confirm my goods.
“But I did not go with them. Rather, I went a day before to first see Aliyu maybe he would change his mind because I believed he will still pay me after the presidential election.
“But this time, he was nasty. He said I am disturbing him, that the next time I will come, he will not answer me.
“I went to the market with the two officers assigned to me and we bought the bags.
“The traders were arrested. Some said they got it direct from Aliyu, and Adamu his errand boy.
“Another identified as his family friend told me that Aliyu always borrows money from him and that he used to give him because he always pays him back that these goods are in exchange of the money he was owing to him. We called Sofan, but he never showed up at the station.
“Later, Aliyu called and promised to pay me first N1m then subsequently in three months telling me his family members decided to bail him out of his debts. That one Amina Zakari former acting chairman of INEC is his sister.
“He explained that if they get a contract of N5m for example, they will write it for 10m so that she can take her own and leave the rest for him in that way the payment will be fast.”
The judge adjourned the case to September 20, 2018, for further hearing
