Alleged N5bn Contract Fraud: NEDC Project Coordinator, Another Remanded in Suleja Facility

Alex Enumah in Abuja

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Tuesday, ordered the remand of a national coordinator of North East Development Commission (NEDC), Alhaji Danjuma Mohammed, and his associate, Prince Chibuike Echem, at the Suleja prison, Niger State, pending the commencement of their alleged fraud trail.

Justice Kezaiah Ogbonna issued the remand order shortly after the arraignment of the defendants on a 55 criminal-count-charge bordering on advance fee fraud, forgery, and award of fake contact to the tune of over N5 billion.

The prosecution, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in the charge, marked CR/708/25, alleged that Mohammed, Echem, and another person, Aminu Alhaji, said to be at large, defrauded one Kenneth Ejiofor Ifekudu of N2.2 billion between May 2022 and February 2024, under the pretence of awarding him contract from the North East Development Commission.

Ifekudu, said to be Managing Director of Diamond Leeds Ltd, was said to have been made to part with the said sum through a coordinated advance fee fraud scheme.

In another count, Mohammed, who is National Coordinator, Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project (MCRP), and Echem were said to have between January and December 2023 obtained another sum of N649.5 million from their victim using the bank account of Echem under the claim that they had capacity to award to Ifekudu’s company contracts from the multi-sectoral crisis projects (MCRP) of the NEDC.

The defendants were in another charge accused of collecting another N573 million from the same contractor through a Wema Bank account belonging to Echem on the pretence of awarding him contracts.

EFCC, in another count, alleged that the defendants fraudulently obtained from the contractor the sums of $480, 000 and $200,000 between January and December 2022.

However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to all the charges read against them, prompting EFCC’s lawyer, Olarenwaju Adeola, to plead for a date for commencement of trial.

Responding, defendants’ lawyer, Chukwuka Obidike, attempted to argue the bail application of his clients but was resisted by the prosecution.

In opposing the move, Adeola told the court that he was served with the bail application in the evening of January 26 and that he only saw it in the courtroom, on January 27.

He insisted that bail application was not ripe for hearing because he needed to file a counter affidavit to legally object to the request.

In a brief ruling Ogbonna agreed with EFCC’s counsel that the application was not ripe for hearing, adding that allowing it to be argued would amount to denial of fair hearing on the part of the prosecution.

Consequently, the judge fixed March 25 to April 7, for trial.