The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned two individuals for allegedly collecting ₦603.4 million from Oluseye Yomi-Sholoye under the pretext of facilitating her appointment as Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
The suspects are Gidado Ibrahim and Halimat Adenike Tejusho, who is currently on the run.
They were arraigned on Monday before the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on an amended six-count charge bordering on fraud and obtaining money by false pretence.
According to the prosecution, the suspects allegedly forged a document bearing the letterhead “Presidential Villa, State House, Office of the National Security Adviser” to carry out the scam.
Part of the charge stated that between August and October 2024, within the court’s jurisdiction, the defendants allegedly obtained the sum of ₦603,400,000 from Yomi-Sholoye by falsely claiming they could secure her appointment as NNPC GMD, a claim they allegedly knew to be untrue. The offence is said to be contrary to the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act, 2006.
Another count alleged that Gidado Ibrahim, sometime in August 2024 in Abuja, knowingly used the forged document as genuine, an offence contrary to the Penal Code Law.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following the plea, the prosecution counsel, Y. Tarfa, requested a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendant in a correctional facility. However, Ibrahim’s counsel, B. B. Alhaji, asked the court to remand his client in EFCC custody due to health concerns, pending the determination of his bail application.
The presiding judge, H. Muazu, adjourned the case to February 17, 2026, for the hearing of the bail application and ordered that the defendant be remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre.
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