Posted by Halima Ibrahim, also known as Leema, a businesswoman, has been brought before an Upper Shari’a Court sitting in Kofar Kudu, Kano State, over an alleged N500 million fraud against 31 market women.
Habiba Tijjani and 30 other people filed the lawsuit in September 2022, asking the Sharia Court Khadi to order Halima Ibrahim to reimburse them for the N500 million she is said to have fraudulently taken from them.
The plaintiffs asserted that they jointly paid Leema the sum of N500 million to order furniture, kitchen utensils, toys, other household things from China, but those products have not yet arrived.
They reported that the woman in question refused to deliver the products or issue a refund, so they took the issue to the Shari’a court, which is presided over by Ustaz Ibrahim Sarki Yola.
The majority of those affected live in neighboring states and must travel to Kano for the court case, according to some of the women who spoke to Radio Nigeria, including Fatima Abdullahi Shehu, Rashida Kardam, Aishatu Abubakar, Aisha Rabi’u, Habiba Tijjani, and Hassana Bello from Abuja, Adamawa, Katsina, Gombe, and Kaduna, respectively.
They noticed that the majority of them were driven to the police station by their respective clients, that the husbands of others divorced them, and that roughly five of them died as a result of stress and pressure from clients who wanted their money back.
They saw that after Halima promoted the products in her WhatsApp group, a sizable sum of the money was paid to her bank account in installments.
“She later wanted a clearance charge after we placed the order, alleging that if the cost wasn’t paid in a timely manner, the uncleared products would be sold.
“Leema had consistently promised to transfer the products, but after a few months it became clear that she had taken advantage of us.
They said that their attempts to get their money back “proven futile.”
The women bemoaned the fact that the case had to be postponed on Thursday since the defendant’s attorneys and the judge were not present, emphasizing that Halima Ibrahim had never shown up during the court session, which had been repeatedly postponed.
With the justification that “as a Judge with known honesty, we trust that he would get to the bottom of the situation and do justice to us,” they pleaded with Sarki Yola to help them by expediting the ruling.
They also pleaded for the emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, and the governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to step in and assist them in obtaining justice in the ongoing case.
We also want assistance from the Kano emirate council and governor Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje khadimul Islam since we are in a precarious situation. Our customers are threatening some of us, endangering our lives. They shouted, “We don’t have peace of mind.
The defense attorneys for the defendant, Aliyu and Yunusa, did not return calls or texts when our reporter tried to reach them.