Rabiu-Rangers Abdullahi, a prosecution witness, told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday how fraud suspect attempted to use minister’s name to defraud Bauchi South senator, Shehu Buba.
Mr Abdullahi, the second prosecution witness, stated this before trial judge Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia.
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He gave his evidence-in-chief led by Leyii Abueh, counsel for the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).
The AGF and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, took over the trial in December 2025, from the Inspector General of Police.
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Ahmed Abdulrahman (first defendant) and his co-defendants were charged by inspector-general of police with 11 counts of cybercrime, defamation, advance fee fraud, among others. The case was filed by Anthony Egwu on 6 October 2025.
The case named David Daure, Ishaq Muhammed, Abdulrashid Musa and Nasir Abubakar as Mr Abdulraham’s co-defendants.
The defendants were arraigned on 30 October 2025, when they pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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They were remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre before they were later granted bail.
Testimony
Giving evidence on Monday, the witness, who said he is a businessman and a politician from Bauchi State, said he got to know the arrowhead of the alleged fraudulent plot, David Daure, about five years ago through Facebook.
“He is my friend on Facebook. He has my phone number and I have his number too. We communicate day in, day out.
“On 8 September 2025, on his Facebook handle, he wrote that there is a protest that will take place in The Charterhouse, London, about Senator Shehu Buba, that he is sponsoring terrorism in Nigeria,” he said.
The prosecution witness said because Mr Daure knew that he was close to the senator, Mr Buba, he sent him the screenshot of the message on Wednesday, 10 September 2025.
“And he said the protest will be on Friday (12 September 2025) and that he knew the organiser of the protest.
“He asked me where I was so that he could come and meet me and I told him to come to a place, where they sold meat,” he said.
The witness said when Mr Daure came to him, and he asked him who was organising the protest. He said Mr Daure gave the purported protest organiser’s name as George Onmonya.
Mr Abdullahi said he asked him who was sponsoring it and he said it was a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that his name was Yusuf Maitama Tuggar.
“I asked him what do you want me to do now and he said I should talk to Senator Buba.
“But I called his (senator’s) S.A. (Special Assistant) on Security, his name is Danladi and he said he (Daure) would be investigated whether the whole thing was a plan to dupe us.”
The witness said the lawmaker’s S.A. on Security later informed him after investigation that there was no protest at London Charterhouse and that Mr Daure was lying.
He said George Onmonya alleged that the minister gave them £10,000 (pounds) to organise the protest.
Mr Abdullahi said Mr Danladi then requested Mr Daure’s phone number from him and he started communicating directly with the second defendant.
“Daure and S.A. started talking and Daure asked for £10, l000 but it was reduced to N5 million.
“Daure started calling me in order to collect the money and I started recording him.
“I took all the conversations with Daure and sent it to the S.A. on Security.
“Daure asked me on Thursday to send the money so that he could talk to the organisers of the protest because it was fixed for Friday,” he said.
The witness told the court that an arrangement was later made to pay Daure the N5 million and that when he arrived at the scene, and he was arrested.
“That is all that I know,” he said.
Cross-examination
Cross-examining the witness, the first defendant, Mr Abdulrahman’s lawyer, Abdul Mohammed, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), sought to tender the two statements made by the witness to the police in evidence and they were admitted in evidence and marked as exhibits.
When asked if he possibly exaggerated the narration, the witness said: “I didn’t have any reason to exaggerate anything. I only said the exact thing that happened.”
When he was asked if it was the exact things that happened that he told the police, the witness responded in the affirmative.
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When the lawyer asked him to go though the statement he made and tell the court where he wrote that “Daure screenshot the message and sent to him,” the witness admitted it was not in his statement.
The witness denied calling Mr Daure on phone in order to have physical meeting with him.
Rather, Mr Abdullahi said it was Mr Daure that sent a message to him to ask his whereabouts.
The judge discharged the witness after all defence lawyers took turns to cross-examine him.
The judge then adjourned further hearing until Tuesday (10 February).
Charges
In count one, the defendants were alleged to have, sometime in 2025, conspired among themselves “to commit an offence, to wit: cyberstalking against Senator Shehu Buba Umar.”
The offence is said to be contrary to Section 27(1)(b) and punishable under Section 21(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc.) Act 2015 (as amended) 2024.
In count three, Mr Abdulrahman was alleged to have, sometime in 2025, intentionally sent a video via his Tiktok handle with user name “Kibanna Channel” and his Youtube channel to defame the lawmaker by linking him to sponsorship of banditry with a view to tarnishing his image as a serving senator.
The suspect was alleged to have stated that “Sen. Buba, is a sponsor of banditry and called for his investigation, a statement you made by means of computer systems and network knowing same to be false, for the purpose of causing breakdown of law and order and causing the Senator fear of death”.
The offence Is also said to be contrary to Section 24(1)(5) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 (as amended) 2024, among other ~counts~ , among others.
(NAN)
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