Kano Central Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Abdulsalam Saleh Abdulkarim was arraigned before Justice Mohammed Nasir Yunusa of the Federal High Court Kano on Wednesday, 1 March, 2023.
The defendant, popularly known as A. A. Zaura, was arraigned on a four count charge of obtaining by false pretense.
On 30 January, the arraignment of Abdulkarim also known as Zaura on multiple fraud charges before a Federal High Court, Kano suffered a postponement owing to the absence of the defence counsel.
It was the fourth time the arraignment failed to proceed mostly because of the politician’s failure to appear in court.
Previously before that, the matter could not go on due to the absence of both the Zaura and the trial judge.
But Zaura was on 30 January, having been picked up at his residence by operatives of the Commission.
However, when the matter was called, the prosecution counsel, A. T. Habib informed the court that she was in receipt of a letter from the defence counsel, I. G. Waru, informing her that he would not be in court as he had a matter at the Supreme Court.
Justice M. N. Yunusa adjourned the matter till February 6, 2023, to enable Zaura to take his plea with his counsel present in court.
Zaura is being re-arraigned by the Kano Zonal Command of the EFCC in obedience to the Court of Appeal ruling, which directed his retrial after dismissing his acquittal by Justice A. L. Allagoa of the Federal High Court.
The politician allegedly defrauded a Kuwaiti citizen of the sum of $1,320,000 (One Million Three Hundred and Twenty Thousand Dollars) on the pretext that he was in the business of building properties in Dubai, Kuwait and other Arab countries.