Ifekudu’s Team Refutes Allegations That Funds in Echem Case Were Bribes, as Bondpay CEO Faces 55-Count Charge
N2.28bn Not Bribe Money, PR Consultant Insists as Bondpay CEO Faces 55-Count Charge, Remanded In Suleja Prison
N2.28bn Not Bribe But Contract Execution Fund As Ogbunka Man Faces 55-Count Charge, Remanded In Suleja 2
Amid growing reactions to the arraignment of Abuja-based socialite and Bondpay Chief Executive, Prince Chibuike Echem, on a 55-count amended charge involving allegations of conspiracy, advance fee fraud, obtaining by false pretence, and forgery, Public Relations consultant Alex Nwankwo (AlexReports) has refuted assertions that the funds in question were given as ‘bribe’ to the defendant.
AlexReports, in a statement issued on Friday, clarified that the N2.28 billion released strictly for the execution of agreed contractual obligations and not as inducement or gratification.
The PR expert explained that Prince Echem and his allies allegedly defrauded the Managing Director of Diamond Leeds Limited, Chief Kenneth Ejiofor Ifekudu after being issued a fake award letters. Prince Chibuike Echem stated that his engineers who are familiar with the volatile nature of the terrain would handle the contract execution especially because of the insecurity. Agreement was reached which his signed and funds were released for the execution of the contracts that were never in existence.
According to him, efforts to label the funds as bribe proceeds were a deliberate attempt to distort the facts of the case.
AlexReports further stated that the allegations of fraud involving over N2.8 billion are currently before the court and should be allowed to be resolved through due legal process rather than media speculation.
Echem, an Abuja-based socialite and indigene of Ogbunka in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State, is currently remanded at the Suleja Correctional Centre following his arraignment before a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Zuba, Abuja, on a 55-count amended charge bordering on conspiracy, advance fee fraud, obtaining by false pretence, and forgery.
According to charges preferred by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the CEO of Bondpay and his allies defrauded the Managing Director of Diamond Leeds Limited, Chief Kenneth Ejiofor Ifekudu, of over N2.8billion.
In the charge marked CR/708/25, the former National Coordinator of Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project, North-East Development Commission, Danjuma Mohammed and Echem are listed as the first and second defendants respectively.
According to the charge, the funds were released to the defendants in tranches for the execution of several contracts in Yobe and Adamawa States.
Specifically, they were alleged to have swindled an indigenous construction and equipment supply firm, Diamond Leeds Limited, of multiple billions of naira, while posing as contract facilitators for the agency.
The EFCC alleged that the offences were committed between 2022 and 2024.
Trouble started in 2023 when Echem allegedly took advantage of his closeness to the Chairman of Diamond Leeds Ltd, Kenneth Ifekudu, and introduced him to Danjuma, who posed as a power broker in the North.
Diamond Leeds was said to have had business transactions with Echem, who served as a consultant but allegedly abused his closeness to the chairman of the firm and duped him of billions of naira.
Count One alleges that between May 2022 and February 2024 in Abuja, the defendants, alongside one Aminu Alhaji (still at large), conspired to obtain by false pretences the sum of N2,280,000,000 from Kenneth Ejiofor Ifekudu, Managing Director of Diamond Leeds Limited, an offence contrary to Section 8(a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
Count three of the charge reads; “That you Alhaji Danjuma Mohammed being the National Coordinator of Multi- Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project, North East Development Commission, Prince Chibuike Echem and Aminu Alhaji (still at large) sometime between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did with intent to defraud, obtain the aggregate sum of N573,500,000 (Five Hundred and Seventy Three Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira) from one Kenneth Ejiofor Ifekudu of Diamond Leeds Limited through Wema Bank account of Rpknce Chibuike Echem under the false pretense that you have the capacity to award contracts to Kenneth Ejiofor Ifekudu’s companies from the Multi- Sectoral Crisis Recovery and Stability Program under the North East Development Commission and execute said contracts which pretense you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) and Punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006.”
In a statement, Nwankwo cautioned that portraying the funds as bribe money was a calculated move aimed at misrepresenting the true circumstances surrounding the case.
He said such claims were not only misleading but also prejudicial, as they sought to sway public opinion and undermine the ongoing judicial process.
He said: “To set the record straight, attempts to brand these funds as bribe proceeds is a clear distortion of facts intended to mislead the public and prejudice the court.
“The monies in question were released for contract execution after the Managing Director of Diamond Leeds Limited, Chief Kenneth Ejiofor Ifekudu and his company were issued fake award letters”.
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