A travel agent, Mr Lukman Abdulkareem has told an Ikeja High Court how another travel agent, Sharafadeen Irorun, allegedly defrauded him of N7 million for hajj pilgrimage.
Abdulkareem was one of the complainants that Irorun allegedly defrauded to the tune of N24.6 million.
He told the court while being led-in-evidence by the state counsel, Mr Olawale Ijabike that he had been in partnership with the Nigeria Armed Forces, Bonny Camp in Ikoyi as a Hajj travel agent for 20 years.
The witness said he came in connection with the defendants sometime in 2014 during the Ebola Epidemic in Nigeria.
He said: ” I have been an Hajj agent since 2022 and I used to give the armed forces numbers of pilgrim clients.
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“In 2014, the Saudi Arabia Authority did not allow too many people to Mecca due to the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.
“I had to refund some of my clients money back to them but two of my clients insisted I must look for slots for them which made me get in contact with the defendant.
“Alhaji Mukaila Salau introduced me to the defendant and gave me his number. He said he had already spoken with Salau when I called him on the phone and told me to make payment for the two slots if I really needed it.
“The defendant told me he had four forms with him and that his mother and wife will use two out of it but the remaining two forms were still available for my clients to use as those who wanted to use it earlier changed their minds,” he said.
The witness further told the court that he transferred the sum of N1.5 million to the defendants for the purchase of the forms.
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He added that the defendant called him a few days later and asked if he needed more slots, and that he had met another man in Alausa who was ready to give him as many slots as he wanted.
“That was how I paid for nine clients in total. I paid N770k each. When he brought the forms, we met under Iyana-Ipaja bridge and I told him we should go to my office but he said he cannot dupe me and that Salau who introduced him to me is a known person.
“I made photocopies of the forms he gave me and I gave them to all my clients, only for one of them, Malam Takushi to call me that he was told the form was fake when he went to verify it at Alausa.
“I called the defendant and he came to Lagos from Saki in Oyo State, and said I will have to follow him to Saki to sort out the issue.
“He said that he will take me to Sikiru, the man he bought the forms from. When we go to Saki, he took me to Sikiru’s mother and she called her son.
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“Sikiru told his mother that the original forms were with him and that the fake ones they gave us will be copied to the original to avoid error,” the witness told the court.
Justice Oyindamola Ogala adjourned the case until Nov.11 for the continuation of the trial.
The state government had on June 30 arraigned Irorun a 12-count-charge bordering on stealing and obtaining money under false pretences.
The prosecution alleged that the defendant and others still at large fraudulently obtained the sum from some intending pilgrims with an assurance to prepare them to travel for the 2014 Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
