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 of Formal Act Legacy Limited, before Justice R. M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna over alleged fraud and money laundering.
Ibrahim was docked on a five-count charge bordering on advance fee fraud, money laundering, retention of proceeds of crime, and obtaining money under false pretence.
One of the charges accused him of conspiring with his company, Formal Act Legacy Limited, to obtain ₦11 million under false pretence in 2023, 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 alleged that in August 2023, Ibrahim retained ₦10 million in his Zenith Bank account, knowing it to be proceeds of unlawful activity, contrary to Section 18(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Following his plea, the prosecution counsel, Fortune Amina Iminabo Asemebo, requested a date for trial, while defence counsel, M. T. Muhammad, sought a date for the hearing of his client’s bail application.
Justice Aikawa ordered that the defendant be remanded in a Nigerian Correctional Centre pending the determination of his bail application and adjourned the case to December 2, 2025.
According to the EFCC, Ibrahim was arrested on April 28, 2025, after 251 petitioners accused him of defrauding them under various false pretences.
The commission further revealed that the embattled contractor is already facing two other fraud cases, one filed on October 29, 2025, on a seven-count charge, and another on November 3, 2025, on an eight-count charge—both of which are currently before the court.
