The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned four Nigerians—Baba Sule Abubakar Sadiq, Hafsat Kabir Lawal, Abdullahi Bala, and Ladani Akindele—for allegedly impersonating the wife of the Governor of Katsina State, Fatima Dikko Radda, and laundering N197,750,000.
They were arraigned on a six-count charge before Justice Amina Bello of the Kaduna State High Court, according to an EFCC statement on Thursday.
It was alleged that they obtained money by false pretenses, engaged in money laundering, and committed theft amounting to N197,750,000.
“Specifically, the defendants allegedly colluded among themselves and defrauded their victims through various means, including impersonating the wife of the Governor of Katsina State, Fatima Dikko Radda,” the statement partly reads.
EFCC’s Allegations
According to the anti-graft agency, the defendants were initially arrested by officers of the Department of State Services (DSS) and later transferred to the EFCC when it was determined that their offenses were financial crimes.
One of the charges reads:
“That you, Hafsat Kabir Lawal, Babasule Abubakar Sadiq, Abdullahi Bala, and Ladani Akindele Ayodele, sometime in December 2024, at Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of this honorable court, with intent to defraud, did obtain the sum of N89,000,000.00 (Eighty-Nine Million Naira Only) from Aminu Usman. The said money was paid into the Taj Bank Plc account number 0009914725, belonging to Abdullahi Bala, under the false pretense that you had the sum of $53,300 (Fifty-Three Thousand Three Hundred United States Dollars) to exchange for the Naira equivalent—a pretense you knew to be false. By doing so, you committed an offense contrary to Section 1(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act, 2006, punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
Court Proceedings
During the court session, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to them by the registrar.
- Counsel to the defendants—M.S. Katu (SAN), Jazuli Mustapha, and Paul A. Okachi—informed the court that they had filed and served various bail applications on behalf of their clients.
- However, the prosecution counsel, Bright C. Ogbonna, prayed the court for a trial date and requested that the defendants be remanded in a correctional facility pending the hearing and determination of their bail applications.
- Ogbonna vehemently opposed the bail applications, arguing that they were not yet ripe for hearing.
- After listening to the submissions from both parties, Justice Bello ordered the defendants to be remanded in a correctional facility and adjourned the matter till March 17, 2025, for the hearing of the bail applications.
More Insights
According to the EFCC, investigations revealed that Hafsat contacted the petitioners while impersonating one of the wives of the current Governor of Katsina State, Malam Dikko Radda.
Using this guise, she allegedly obtained 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 them on Truecaller as ‘Fatima Dikko Radda.'”
“He then allegedly contacted the fourth defendant, Ladani Akindele, his former colleague at a new-generation bank, and asked him to provide the contact number of the Chairman of Unity Bank, Hafiz Bashir. Through this connection, he obtained the contact number of the petitioner, who is a bureau de change operator.”
“Hafsat subsequently contacted the petitioner, Aminu Usman, and collected a total sum of N197,750,000 from him, claiming that she had the dollar equivalent of the money ($118,300) to exchange,” the EFCC statement reads.
The funds were reportedly deposited into the bank account of Abdullahi Bala before allegedly being distributed among the four defendants and laundered through various means.
