EFCC arraigns suspect over alleged N603.4m NNPC appointment scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, February 9, 2026, arraigned Gidado Ibrahim alongside Halimat Adenike Tejusho (currently at large) before Justice H. Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Maitama, Abuja, over an alleged NNPC job scam involving N603.4 million.

The defendants were arraigned on an amended six-count charge bordering on fraud, obtaining money by false pretence, and forgery.

At Monday’s proceedings, prosecution counsel, Y. Tarfa, informed the court of the amended charges and urged the court to allow the defendant to take his plea.

According to count one of the charge, Gidado Ibrahim and Halimat Adenike Tejusho, between August and October 2024, allegedly obtained the sum of N603,400,000 (Six Hundred and Three Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira) from Oluseye Yomi-Sholoye under the false pretence that they would facilitate her appointment as the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)—a claim they allegedly knew to be false. The offence is said to be contrary to Section 1(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.

Count two further alleged that Ibrahim, sometime in August 2024 in Abuja, knowingly used a forged document titled “Presidential Villa State House, Office of the National Security Adviser” as genuine. The offence is contrary to Section 366 of the Penal Code Law and punishable under Section 364 of the same law.

Ibrahim pleaded not guilty to all six counts when they were read to him.

Following the plea, Tarfa requested a trial date and asked the court to remand the defendant in a correctional facility.

However, defence counsel, B.B. Alhaji, informed the court that a bail application had been filed but was not yet ripe for hearing. He urged the court to remand the defendant in EFCC custody, citing his client’s health condition, pending the hearing and determination of the bail application.

Justice Muazu adjourned the matter to February 17, 2026, for the hearing of the bail application and ordered that the defendant be remanded at the Kuje Correctional Facility.