Husband, wife arraigned for allegedly impersonating Katsina State First Lady for N197m fraud

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 allegedly obtaining money by false pretence, money laundering and stealing to the tune of N197,750,000.

They were arraigned on six-count charges on Monday.

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.

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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.

According to the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, “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 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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