High Court Admits Nine Exhibits Against Malami, Family

A Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja and presided over by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik on Monday, April 20, 2026 admitted nine exhibits against a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, alongside his wife, Hajia Bashir Asabe, and his son, Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami.

The exhibits were presented before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in its ongoing trial of the former Minister and some family members.

The EFCC is prosecuting the defendants on an amended 16-count charge bordering on conspiracy, procuring, disguising, concealing and laundering proceeds of unlawful activities to the tune of N8,713,923,759.49 (Eight Billion, Seven Hundred and Thirteen Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand, Seven Hundred and Fifty-Nine Naira, Forty-Nine Kobo), contrary to the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

The exhibits, which are documentary in nature, were tendered through the fourth prosecution witness, Mashelia Arhyel Bata, a compliance officer with Zenith Bank Plc.

Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, J. S. Okutepa, SAN, the witness told the court that, in the course of his official duties, he received correspondence from the EFCC requesting documents relating to several accounts linked to the defendants and associated entities.

“I work as a compliance officer with Zenith Bank, Maitama branch. My duty includes receiving correspondence from law enforcement agencies and responding accordingly,” he said.

Bata further disclosed that the bank complied with EFCC’s requests by providing both soft and hard copies of documents relating to accounts belonging to the defendants and companies such as Rayhaan Hotels Limited, Rayhaan Bustan Agro Allied Limited, Nashab Limited, Golden Age Global Ventures, and Rahamaniyya Properties Limited.

“My lord, the documents are nine,” he stated, confirming his ability to identify them when presented in court.

Upon application by Okutepa, the court admitted the documents, dated between July 19, 2024 and March 12, 2026, as Exhibits D1 to D9, despite an initial objection by defence counsel, J. B. Daudu, SAN, who noted that “the dates are almost all in March.”

Continuing his testimony under further examination by prosecution counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, the witness provided details of transactions contained in the exhibits.

He identified Exhibit D1 as containing account opening documents and statements for accounts belonging to Abubakar Malami and A.A. Malami & Co, including a naira account and a dollar account.

According to him, the statement of account for one of the accounts covered the period from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2023.

The witness confirmed that the accounts were active between 2015 and 2023, noting that “there were transfers within that period.”

He further revealed that total credits into one of the accounts stood at N383,637,21.55 between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2023, while total credits from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2015 amounted to N560,506,465.12.

On debits, he stated that N384,322,120.85 was recorded between 2016 and 2023, while N571,891,174.08 was debited between 2012 and 2015.

Malami

Giving further breakdown of transactions, the witness told the court that on November 11, 2020, the account received N194,791,608.00 from New Horizons Limited, and on June 24, 2022, it received N622,500,000.00 from Rayhaan Bustan Agro Allied Limited.

He added that on July 1 and July 7, 2022, the account received N250 million each from Rayhaan Hotels Limited, while on December 22, 2022, there was an inflow of N500 million linked to Rayhaan Bustan Agro Allied Limited.

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Continuing in that format, the witness identified so many transactions running into billions.

Following the testimony, the defence counsel, J.B Daudu SAN sought an adjournment to enable him study the exhibits and prepare for cross-examination.

“My lord, we need time to go through the nine exhibits tendered,” Daudu said.

Justice Abdulmalik subsequently adjourned the matter till May 13, 2026, for continuation of trial.

Investment Fraud: Witnesses Tell Court How They Were Scammed In Afriq Arbitrage System

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, April 16, 2026, presented Prosecution Witnesses 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 before Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, FCT Abuja in the ongoing trial of Jesam Michael Ubi and Afriq Arbitrage System, AAS for their alleged involvement in investment fraud.

The witnesses who are victims of Ubi, the first defendant’s arbitrage trading platform, Afriq Arbitrage System, AAS, testified on the loss of their investment capital and promised return on investment.

Led in their testimony by the prosecution counsel, Ekele Iheanacho SAN, PW12, Okoye Eugene, a welder, told the court that he invested in an investment platform called COTPS which crashed. He disclosed that the first defendant through the investment’s social media group, encouraged him to continue investing even as it became apparent to him that he had been scammed. He also told the court that it was from the social group the first defendant migrated him and other investors to a telegram group and introduced his arbitrage trading platform AAS to them.

He told the court that he was convinced to invest because the first defendant had told the investors that their money was safe and warehoused in the Binance liquidity pool, where no unauthorised person can access. He added that the first defendant showed pictures of his wife, children and mother to them on the telegram group to further convince him. These, he said, gave him the assurance for which he had to invest over $82,000 (Eighty Two Thousand Dollars) on behalf of himself, his friends and families.

The PW12 further told the court that in April 2023, the first defendant told him and other investors that there was a glitch in the system and that as a result they could no longer get Return on Investment, RoI. However, he stated that he knew that something was wrong after the first defendant told them that a certain Abayomi stole $87,000,000 (Eighty Seven Million Dollars) but that their capital was still intact because he stole from their interest pool and not the capital pool and were assured that they would start getting their RoI.

He further told the court that the first defendant also assured him that he could access his capital within hours once he sent an email to the support team. He regretted that till date, neither interest nor the capital he invested has been made available to him.

Prosecution Witness 13, Salihu Z. Ibrahim, a business man from Auchi, Edo State, who deals in kitchen wares, told the court that he was also given one hundred percent assurance that his investment was safe and that the platform was secured from any form of external breach. He disclosed that he was also convinced to invest after the first defendant gave assurances of the safety of his money in Binance liquidity pool.

However, he stated that as developments began to take a bad turn in the investment platform and with investors demanding RoI and their capitals, they were forcefully removed from the telegram platform, threatened and even arrested. He also disclosed that financial figures on the investment platform became manipulated.

Prosecution Witness 14, Johnson Veronica stated that she sold her cars and other properties and invested about $80,000 (Eighty Thousand Dollars) in AAS, adding that since the day she invested, her life has taken a drastic turn for the worse. She told the court that she lost her marriage and all her life savings as a result.

She further told the court that after investing, the first defendant told her that he was going for a liver treatment, claiming that while he was in the hospital, a certain Abayomi, compromised his face and fingerprint biometrics and that of his wife and gained unauthorised access to the funds in the interest pool and stole $87,000,000 (Eighty Seven Million Dollars). She told the court that she rather suspected foul play from the first defendant because he had told them that not even him, the creator of the platform, could breach it.

Prosecution Witness 15, Ayam Sebastian Chinwendu, a civil servant who also took loans to invest in both the AAS trading platform and a more recent token introduced to investors by the defendant, invested over $3,000 (Three Thousand Dollars) and had since been stranded with no recovery of her funds.

Prosecution Witness 16, Okonkwo Leonard Emeka testified that he was introduced to the platform by his sister and invested over $20,000 (Twenty Thousand Dollars) into the AAS platform and a further $17,000 in the newly floated token with the hope of receiving returns on his investment, but disclosed that from the time of his investment till date, he has neither been paid his initial capital or a return on investment.

Fraud

According to him “I have put in all I have into this and convinced others to invest and now this is costing me my family. I don’t want the RoI anymore. I just want the money I invested so that I can take care of my family.

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According to him, he felt bad that even after the first defendant had told them of a certain Abayomi stealing from the interest pool and that they would not get RoI, he wondered why the first defendant went on living an opulent lifestyle, displaying swimming pools with his name them and driving expensive cars while he could not have access to his capital as promised.

All the witnesses confirmed to the court that the trading platform, AAS, could no longer be accessed by the investors. They also told the court that they did not believe the first defendant used the money invested for arbitrage trading as he assured he would.

The prosecution counsel tendered screenshots of the witnesses’ dashboards and other pages of the investment platforms which were all admitted in evidence by the court.

The case was adjourned till May 14, 2026 for continuation of trial.

EFCC Arrests Kaduna Businessman Over Multimillion-naira Dud Cheques

Mr Timothy, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court, on Monday, ordered a businessman, Vincent Timothy, to be remanded in prison custody for issuing dud cheques totalling N20 million.

Mr Timothy, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

“The defendant shall be remanded in the correctional centre pending ruling on his bail application,” the judge said.

Mr Khobo thereafter adjourned the case until May 12 for a ruling on the bail application.

Earlier, EFCC’s counsel, E. K. Garba, had told the court that the defendant committed the offence sometime in January.

Mr Garba said the defendant took a N20 million loan from Aires Financial Services Limited, which was to be returned at a later date.

EFCC

The lawyer disclosed that the defendant later issued five dud cheques, each for N4 million, which were all dishonoured due to insufficient funds in his account.

The defence’s lawyer, A. M. Sunday, however, asked the court to grant bail to the defendant.

He said that the defendant had voluntarily reported to the EFCC office on April 3, after being invited by the anti-graft agency.