The Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, arraigned one Abdulkarim Auwalu before Justice A.O. Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Auwalu was arraigned on a six-count charge bordering on operating bureau de change business without an appropriate licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
The petitioner alleged that he was approached by some unknown persons on the phone with a business proposal for investments in the defendant’s business and other related businesses in Nigeria.
The proposal allegedly involved the injection of about $10 million into the defendant’s science and hospital equipment business.
It was also alleged that in the course of facilitating the transmission of the boxes containing the $10 million the purported agents of the defendant kept presenting demand notices for the payment of various amounts of money from the nominal complainant under the guise of meeting statutory charges for the clearance of the said boxes containing the money to his Kano office address.
Investigation revealed that Auwalu made cash payments, rather than using a financial institution.
One of the counts reads: ”That you, Abdulkarim Auwalu, sometime within January and April 2024 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, without a company duly incorporated in Nigeria, failed to obtain a valid licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria to carry on your business of Bureau De Change and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 57 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, 2020 and punishable under Sections 57(5) of the same Act.
He pleaded “not guilty” to the charge preferred against him .
In view of this, the prosecution counsel, A.A. Usman, asked the court for a trial date and also prayed for the remand of the defendant in a Correctional Centre.
The defence counsel, Abdulqadir Wodi, however, informed the court of a pending bail application, which he sought to move.
Responding, Usman told the court that he had not received the bail application.
He was, thereafter, served in the open court .
Justice Owoeye remanded the defendant in the Correctional Centre and adjourned till July 1, 2025 for the hearing of the bail application.
