The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a self-styled native doctor, Olorunbukunmi Taiwo, and his wife, Awolegan Omolola Omotola, before the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti over an alleged contract scam involving N1,098,961,500, approximately N1.09 billion.
The Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the EFCC brought the defendants before Justice Abubakar Usman on a six-count charge bordering on obtaining money by pretense and retention of proceeds of crime.
The charges are said to be contrary to the provisions of the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004, offenses that, if proven, carry severe penalties under Nigerian law.
According to the EFCC, the defendants’ troubles began after a petition was submitted by Anazia Colina Kenechukwu, a widow who owns a private school in Delta State. The petitioner alleged that Taiwo approached her for financial support for a road construction contract he claimed had been awarded to him by the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC).
To any investor, DESOPADEC, a government intervention agency tasked with developing oil-producing communities in Delta State, would lend an air of credibility to any proposed contract. It was, investigators now allege, a calculated choice of cover.
Taiwo reportedly presented himself as a contractor with government backing, painting a picture convincing enough to persuade a grieving widow to open her purse repeatedly.
Court documents reveal that the alleged fraud took place between January 2024 and November 2025, nearly two years during which funds flowed steadily in one direction. Investigations by the EFCC revealed that the complainant transferred huge sums of money into the first defendant’s bank account in anticipation of returns from the contract.
The scale of the alleged deception is staggering. Court documents indicated that about N1.98 billion was paid into an Access Bank account belonging to Taiwo during the course of the transaction, nearly double the N1.09 billion cited in the charge, suggesting that what has been formally charged may represent only the provable portion of a far larger scheme.
Investigations revealed that the couple invested the proceeds of the alleged illicit activities in the acquisition of two properties in Ado-Ekiti, namely, Town Tavern Lounge, located at No. 1, Ikere Road, off Florence Court, Irewolede Estate, and a four-bedroom bungalow within the same estate.
The hospitality business, Town Tavern Lounge, now stands as a monument to what the EFCC alleges was stolen wealth, a going concern built, prosecutors claim, on the life savings of a widow.
An interim forfeiture order is a temporary legal measure that allows authorities to seize properties suspected of being proceeds of crime pending the conclusion of investigations or further court proceedings.
The EFCC has already moved swiftly on this front. The court, after reviewing the application filed by the commission, was satisfied that the agency had fulfilled all the necessary legal requirements before granting the request. That order was secured on May 25, 2026, two weeks before Monday’s arraignment.
When the charges were read in open court, both defendants pleaded not guilty. Justice Usman subsequently adjourned the matter to a later date for the commencement of the trial.
The not-guilty plea sets the stage for what is expected to be a keenly watched trial, one that will test the EFCC’s ability to trace, document, and prove a paper trail of billions allegedly siphoned from a vulnerable victim over nearly two years.
For Kenechukwu, who trusted a stranger with funds likely accumulated over years of running her private school, the court proceedings represent not just a legal battle but a deeply personal reckoning. Her petition to the EFCC triggered the investigation that ultimately led to Monday’s arraignment, making her both the victim and the catalyst for justice in this case.
The EFCC, which has intensified its crackdown on contract fraud schemes targeting individuals across Nigeria, has signaled that it will pursue the matter to its logical conclusion.
With two properties under interim forfeiture and a detailed transaction history from Access Bank records at its disposal, the commission appears confident in its case.
The trial date is yet to be formally fixed, but when it begins, it will lay bare, in the cold language of court proceedings, just how a widow’s trust was allegedly turned into a billion-naira windfall and whether the Nigerian justice system can deliver a reckoning proportionate to the alleged crime.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
A self-styled native doctor and his wife now face justice after allegedly using a phantom government contract as bait to swindle a widowed schoolteacher of nearly two billion naira.
The defendants allegedly exploited a widow’s trust and financial vulnerability by fabricating the legitimacy of a DESOPADEC road contract, a scheme that spanned nearly two years before it unravelled.
