Rabiu-Rangers Abdullahi, a witness, on Monday told the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, that David Daure attempted to use Yusuf Tuggar’s name to defraud a senator, Shehu Buba.

Mr Abdullahi, the second prosecution witness, stated this before Justice Rita Offili-Ajumogobia while being led in evidence-in-chief by Leyii Abueh, counsel for the attorney general of the federation.

AGF Lateef Fagbemi had, in December 2025, taken over the prosecution of the matter from the inspector general of police.

Ahmed Abdulrahman (first defendant) and his co-defendants were initially being prosecuted by the IG. The police chief, in the 11-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/526/2025 and filed by Ahmed Abdulrahman on October 6, 2025, named Mr Daure, Ishaq Muhammed, Abdulrashid Musa and Nasir Abubakar as the second to fifth defendants, respectively.

The defendants were arraigned on October 30, 2025, on an 11-count charge that also bordered on alleged cybercrime, defamation, and advance-fee fraud, among others. They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges and were remanded to Kuje Correctional Centre before being granted bail.

Giving his evidence on Monday, the witness, who said he was a businessman and politician from Bauchi, said he met Mr Daure about five years ago on Facebook.

“On 8th September, 2025, on his Facebook handle, he wrote that there is a protest that will take place in London, Charterhouse, about Senator Shehu Buba, that he is sponsoring terrorism in Nigeria,” he said.

He said that because Mr Daure knew Mr Buba was close to him, he sent him the screenshot of the message on September 10, 2025.

“He said the protest will be on Friday (September 12, 2025) and that he knew the organiser of the protest,” stated the witness.

The witness said Mr Daure gave the name of the organiser as George Onmonya.

“I asked him who is sponsoring it, and he said it is a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and his name is Yusuf Maitama Tuggar. I asked him what he wanted 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 (Mr Daure) would be investigated, whether the whole thing was a plan to dupe us,” Mr Abdullahi explained.

The witness said the lawmaker’s aide later informed him, after an investigation, that there was no protest at London Charterhouse and that Mr Daure was lying. He said Mr Onmonya alleged that the minister gave them £10,000 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 £10,000, but it was reduced to N5 million. Daure started calling me to collect the money, and I started recording him. I took all the conversations with Daure and sent them 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 explained.

The witness told the court that an arrangement was later made to pay Mr Daure the N5 million and that when he arrived at the scene, he was arrested.

“That is all that I know,” he said.

Under cross-examination, Abdul Mohammed, who appeared for the first defendant (Mr Abdulrahman), sought to tender the two statements made by the witness to the police in evidence; they were admitted and marked as exhibits.

When he was asked if he must have 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 whether the exact things that happened were what he told the police, the witness responded affirmatively.

When the lawyer asked him to go through 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 to arrange an in-person meeting. Rather, Mr Abdullahi said it was Mr Daure who sent him a message asking about his whereabouts.

After all the lawyers cross-examined the second witness, he was discharged from the witness box, and the judge adjourned the matter until Tuesday (today) for the continuation of the trial.

(NAN)