Abubakar Malami’s Lawyer Condemns Mahdi’s Press Statement Over N19 Million Scam
M.E Sheriff, lawyer to the past Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and his family, has condemned a press statement by one Mahdi Shehu over his arrest and detection by the police, concerning alleged N19 million online scam.
In a statement today, February 10, the lawyer said that the press statement that was made on February 7, 2024 as well as that of 13th January 2021, “is totally not correct, misleading, malicious, and a grossly misrepresentation of the facts leading to the arrest.
“We, as solicitors to Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN and his family, noted the said press statement with grave concern.”
The legal practitioner said that without prejudice to the police investigation that is ongoing, the true facts had to do with Complaint/Petition “which we wrote to the Inspector General of Police on allegations bothering on extortion, criminal intimidation and attempt to obtain money by false pretence against a syndicate using GSM Numbers and email addresses. This led to the ongoing investigation into the complaint by the Police.
“In the course of the investigation, the Police monitored the sustained communications between our clients and the syndicates, wherein the syndicate disclosed and gave Room Number 9, Summerset Continental Hotel situate at No 73 Usuma Street, Maitama, Abuja, as a place where our client would meet the syndicate’s agent for their own payments.
“On reaching the hotel and the room number, Mahdi Shehu was found therein at the scene with copies of documents that were used and sent to our client by the syndicate. Some of the documents which the police retrieved from Mahdi Shehu specifically lend credence to yet another petition of our client that bothers on hacking and financial improprieties affecting Hajiya Aisha Abubakar Malami.
“On account of the compromise of our client’s emails, sensitive information was unlawfully extracted from an email account, and the sum of over N19,000,000.00 (Nineteen Million Naira) was unlawfully taken out of our client’s account by the syndicate which turns out to be a syndicate of which Mahdi was coordinating, via a group chat which he joined through the following phone numbers, viz: +2348033316644 and +2348096626226.
“He came over to the said provided address to collect $500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand US Dollar) at the instance of the syndicate.”
Malami’s lawyer said that the investigation and all the documents recovered thus far are there with the Police for any person that cares to verify.
“Therefore, we should all encourage, support and allow the police to do their work as it is the outcome of the investigation that can confirm who is culpable and who is innocent.
The statement said that at the moment, if Mahdi Shehu has any explanation to make regarding the arrest, he should do so to the police but not to the press or embark on campaign of calumny via the social media.
Mahdi Shehu: Between Activism And “Hacktivism,” By Ahmad Usman Mairukubta
The media is currently agog with the story of the arrest and detention of a popular social media personality, Malam Mahdi Shehu. Shehu, a Kaduna based quasi-whistleblower, achieved notoriety with series of videos backed by doctored documents which were intended to prove (more appropriately, mislead the public) into believing phantom corruption allegations against former Governor of Katsina State, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, and senior officials of his administration.
While it lasted, Mahdi’s solo voyage to fame crashed with as much speed as it gained popularity. The climax of the voyage was when, after appearing in court on a stretcher, wearing neck collar to appear totally incapacitated, he was secretly recorded in his holding cell removing the medical costume he deceptively wore to court for the desperate purpose of dodging the numerous cases of libel instituted against him by Katsina State and some of its officials seeking for redress for being maligned by Mahadi in series of videos backed by doctored documents.
More than Mahdi, followers of his social media anti-corruption crusade were more rudely shocked by the cheap manner he was nabbed practicing the exact opposite of what he spent a considerable time preaching against. No gainsaying the shameful incident explicitly highlighted the gullibility of Mahadi’s followers as much as it punctured his claim to any moral and intellectual disposition.
Always confident and wearing a false mien of righteousness, uprightness and impeccable character, Mahdi is the least candidate for a notorious blackmailer in the minds of his seemingly hypnotized followers, not with his trade mark incantations of verses of the Holy Quran heralding every new “revelation”of one uncovered fraud or another with which he held them spellbound for a very long time while dragging the names of many honorable people in the mud with reckless impunity.
Mahdi Shehu is now in jail for a lot less than he accused many of his victims. He’s arrested not only for attempt to blackmail former Minister Malami, he’s in the net for a bigger criminality of hacking bank accounts, social media accounts, e-mails and whatsapp accounts of members of his family. In the petition the former Minister presented to the IGP, he accused Mahadi Shehu of attempting to open a fake bank account with the name of his (Malami’s) wife, Aisha Abubakar Malami, obviously for the purpose of implicating Malami in nefarious financial activities to compliment the “bad guy” image of Malami he (Mahdi) has spent considerable time trying to impress in the minds of Nigerians.
And for clarity, Malami and the NPF were not at the Summerset Hotel to arrest Mahadi Shehu. They were their to nab the imposters that have been using different phone numbers, e-mails and social media accounts trying to blackmail the former minister. It’s fate (or is it sheer stupidity) that took the best of Mahadi and had him come personally, instead of sending a proxy, to collect the $500,000 supposedly agreed with Malami as the price for his silence. You don’t blame Mahdi though. $500,000 is quite a big sum to be entrusted with anybody not to mention the fact that a cheat hates to be cheated. Apparently Mahadi lower his guards to avoid having a taste of his pill by being “defrauded.”
The irony of it all, in one of his numerous e-mails to Malami, Mahadi Shehu (or is it Col. Kenneth) expressed anger and encouraged Malami to be smarter for what he said were efforts to track his accomplice, an “innocent woman” as he put it. He wrote and I quote:
“You’re sounding silly by now. If you know the data’s we got from your deals I don’t think you’ll be tracking an innocent woman. How do you expect us to be so cheap to be tracked?” Unquote.
Funnily, Mahadi (Col. Kenneth in this case) was nabbed cheaply like a village crook who missed his way to the city — waiting in a hotel room with a bagful of incriminating documents waiting to collect $500,000 blackmail fees. Isn’t this ironic given how Mahadi’s notoriety and expertise in the game of hide and seek with security operatives?
Indeed, there are great lessons for activists as well as “hacktivists” in this saga. May we learn from.
Ahmad Usman Mairukubta! can be reached via ahmadusmandkg3@gmail.com