$25,000 Extortion: Court To Hear Audio Evidence Against Senator Shehu Sani, Dec 4

December 4, 2020, has been set for the review of audio evidence, which captured former Senator Shehu Sani’s voice, allegedly extorting $25,000 from Kaduna-based businessman, Alhaji Sani Dauda, of ASD Motors.

The date was fixed on Wednesday by Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Sani had represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th Senate.

He was alleged to have demanded the money on a claim that he was going to use it to bribe the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad, and former Chairman of
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, in the event Dauda’s estranged son-in-law, one Abubakar Musa, petitioned the anti-graft agency against him.

EFCC Spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said investigation of the matter and Sani’s eventual prosecution followed the petition Dauda sent to the commission after the accused had allegedly extorted the money from him.

Uwujaren added that the former senator is being prosecuted on a two-count criminal charge bordering on name-dropping, influence-peddling and obtaining by false pretence.

The EFCC spokesman noted that a Prosecuting Witness 10, (PW10), Bako Aliyu, an EFCC detective and investigating officer in the case, at the resumed trial, informed the court that he confirmed from the bank that such a transaction as claimed by the petitioner actually took place.

Aliyu was quoted to have said: “We invited the two bureau de change operators and they confirmed to us that the complainant actually changed money into dollars from them. We also directed the complainant to record any conversation between him and the defendant which he did.

“We then collected two mobile phones from the complainant (an iPhone and a Samsung) and also a Samsung phone from the defendant which we sent to our Forensic Department for further analysis. The result of the analysis showed lots of conversation between the two of them in Hausa and we translated them to English and burnt it on compact disk.”

Uwujaren continued: “The witness also informed the court that the CJN has exonerated himself from Sani’s alleged bribery claim by publishing a disclaimer on two national dailies: Daily Trust and The Punch, and that an engagement the Commission’s officers had with the CJN over the matter further proved that he had nothing to do with the extortion.

“It could be recalled that the EFCC on Tuesday, October 10, 2020, presented Prosecuting Witness 9, (PW9), Sharif Zailani Shanono, a bureau de change operator who revealed that Dauda on November 29, 2019, informed him that he needed USD$10,000 (Ten Thousand US Dollars), which he delivered to him through his aid, one Lawal. And that Dauda on December 10, 2019 transferred a Naira equivalent of the sum, being N3,900,000 (Three Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira) to his bank account.”