Abdulsalam Abdulkarim, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just-concluded Kano Central senatorial election, has been brought before a Federal High Court in Kano.
Abdulkarim, better known as A.A. Zaura, was arraigned in court on Wednesday on a four-count charge of obtaining by false pretence. The event occurred a few days after Abdulkarim’s failed bid to represent his district in the Senate.
He was accused of cheating a Kuwaiti citizen out of $1.3 million by saying he was in the business of building homes in Dubai, Kuwait, and other Arab countries.
Once the Court of Appeal reversed the lower court’s discharge and acquittal verdict and ordered a new trial, he was re-arraigned.
One of the charges said, “That you, Abdulkarim Saleh Abdulssalam, sometime in August 2014, at Kano within the Kano Judicial Division of the High Court, with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($200,000.00) from Dr. Jamman Al- Azmi when you represented that you have the capacity to partner with him for a joint venture business, which representation you knew to be false, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1[1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act”.
When the charges were read to Zaura, he said he was not guilty.
When his lawyer, Ishaq Mudi Dikko (SAN), asked for bail, the trial judge, Justice Muhammad Yunusa, said the defendant could keep the bail terms the court had given him before.
After that, the judge put the trial off until May 2, when it will start.
