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The Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a former Kaduna State government contractor, Bashir Bello Ibrahim, before the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna over alleged N111 million fraud.
Ibrahim, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Formal Act Legacy Limited, was docked before Justice A. M. Aikawa on a seven-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence, advance fee fraud, and money laundering.
One of the counts reads:
“That you, Bashir Ibrahim Bello (being Managing Director of Formal Act Legacy Limited) and Formal Act Legacy Limited, sometime in July 2024 at Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, conspired between yourselves to commit a felony, to wit: obtaining the sum of N37,300,000 under false pretence, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14 of 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
Another charge accused him of conspiracy to commit money laundering, contrary to Section 21(a) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and punishable under Section 18(3) and (4) of the same law.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to all charges. Following his plea, prosecution counsel Fortune Amina I. Asemebo requested a trial date, while the defence counsel M. T. Mohammed moved a motion for the hearing of the bail application. The court, however, declined to hear the bail plea.
Justice Aikawa consequently ordered that the defendant be remanded in a Correctional Centre pending the determination of his bail application.
According to the EFCC, the case stemmed from a petition by a complainant who alleged that he was introduced to the defendant in 2024 by three individuals — Josephine Washima, Mamuda Nyelong, and Nalara Tanimu — who claimed to be contract facilitators.
The trio allegedly convinced the petitioner that Ibrahim could award him contracts for the construction of solar-powered boreholes across the North-East region in his purported capacity as a “United Nations Sub-African Regional Coordinator.”
The petitioner reportedly paid N37.3 million as a facilitation fee into Washima’s bank account and was issued five fake contract award letters for the drilling of 20 solar-powered boreholes.
He later executed one slot of the supposed contract, comprising four boreholes in Karin Madaki, Bauchi State, but was never paid. Upon discovering that the contracts were fictitious, he lodged a formal petition to the EFCC, leading to Ibrahim’s arrest and arraignment.
