The Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned former Kaduna State government contractor, Bashir Bello Ibrahim, before the Federal High Court, Kaduna, over alleged N111 million fraud.
Ibrahim, Chief Executive Officer of Formal Act Legacy Limited, was docked before Justice A. M. Aikawa on a seven-count charge of obtaining money by false pretence, advance fee fraud, and money laundering.
One of the charges reads:
“That you, Bashir Ibrahim Bello, and Formal Act Legacy Limited, sometime in July 2024 at Kaduna, conspired between yourselves to obtain the sum of ₦37,300,000 under false pretence…”
According to the EFCC, the case stemmed from a petition by a complainant who was allegedly deceived into believing Ibrahim could award contracts for solar-powered boreholes across the North-East.
The agency said the defendant posed as a “United Nations Sub-African Regional Coordinator” and collected ₦37.3 million as a facilitation fee.
The petitioner reportedly received five fake contract award letters and executed one lot of four boreholes in Karin Madaki, Bauchi State, but was never paid.
Ibrahim pleaded not guilty to all counts. EFCC counsel Fortune Amina I. Asemebo requested a trial date, while defence counsel M. T. Mohammed sought bail.
The court, however, “declined to hear the bail application” and ordered that the defendant be remanded in a Correctional Centre pending determination of his bail.
