EFCC Arraigns Fake Contractor for N111m Fraud in Kaduna

Kaduna, November 1, 2025

The Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned one Bashir Bello Ibrahim, a former Kaduna State government contractor and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Formal Act Legacy Limited, before Justice A. M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna, for alleged involvement in a ₦111 million fraud.
Ibrahim was docked on a seven-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretences, 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 the month of 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 ₦37,300,000 (Thirty-Seven Million, Three Hundred Thousand Naira only) 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 reads:
“That you, Bashir Ibrahim Bello (being Managing Director of Formal Act Legacy Limited) and Formal Act Legacy Limited, sometime in the month of July 2024 at Kaduna, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, conspired to commit an offence to wit: money laundering and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 21(a) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 and punishable under Section 18(3) & (4) of the same Act.”

The defendant pleaded not guilty to all charges when they were read to him. Following his plea, prosecuting counsel Fortune Amina I. Asemebo requested the court to fix a date for trial. In response, defence counsel M. T. Mohammed moved a motion for the hearing of the defendant’s bail application.
However, the court could not take the bail application at the time. Justice Aikawa subsequently ordered that the defendant be remanded in a Correctional Centre pending the hearing and 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 by Josephine Washima, Mamuda Nyelong, and Nalara Tanimu—individuals who presented themselves as contract facilitators. The complainant was allegedly deceived into believing that Ibrahim, in his purported capacity as United Nations Sub-African Regional Coordinator, could award him contracts for the construction of solar-powered boreholes across the North-East region of Nigeria.

Convinced by the representations, the petitioner reportedly paid ₦37,300,000 as a facilitation fee into the bank account of Washima. He was thereafter issued five letters of award for the drilling of 20 solar-powered boreholes.
The petitioner further alleged that he executed one of the purported contracts—consisting of four solar-powered boreholes located behind Specialist School, Sabon Abuja Jahun, Nurses Quarters, and Water Board Quarters, all in Karin Madaki, Bauchi State—but was never paid for the work. Upon discovering that the entire contract scheme was fraudulent, he filed a petition to the EFCC.

The EFCC investigation revealed that the total amount involved in the scam was ₦111 million, prompting the commission to file charges against Ibrahim and his company.
Justice Aikawa adjourned the matter to a later date for the hearing of the bail application and the commencement of trial.