Yahaya Bello absent in court as EFCC threatens to use army to arrest him

Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has adjourned the suit lodged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), against the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.

The arraignment of the former governor on Thursday was stalled over his absence in court.

At the resumed sitting, counsel for the anti-graft agency, Kemi Phinro, told the court that Mr Yahaya Bello was absent from court for his arraignment because he was being shielded by someone with immunity.

Phinro said Yahaya Bello was smuggled out of his Abuja home by the same person with immunity.

According to Phinro, the commission might seek the help of the military to smoke out the embattled former governor.

He said, “We may have to invite the military to move Yahaya Bello out of where he is hiding.

“We may have to engage the military to force him out because immunity does not cover him where he is hiding.

“No one is above the law. Immunity covers only the governor and not everyone around him.”

The commission had laid siege in Bello’s Abuja home on Wednesday to arrest him, but was unable to do so due to certain extraneous factors.

Recall that the EFCC had charged Yahaya Bello with financial fraud to the tune of N84 billion.

The commission in an amended charge, accused Bello of diverting N80 billion of state funds in September 2015, four months before he assumed office.

But the state government faulted the charge describing it as “ridiculous” and “laughable”, argued that it is impossible, as the former governor was not yet in a position to access or misappropriate state funds at said time.

The state government in a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, had on February 7, 2024, accused the EFCC of being “infested with persons whose intents disagree with the noble intention of ‘Mr. President’ to defeat corruption in Nigeria.”

EFCC, which joined Bello’s nephew Ali Bello, Dauda Sulaiman and Abdulsalam Hudu as co-accused, had said it is prosecuting them on an amended 17-count charge of money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of fund to tune of N84, 062,406,089.88.

The anti-graft agency had claimed in the amended charge that former governor Bello is still at large.

Count one of the charges reads, “That you, Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman, Yahaya Adoza Bello (still at large) and Abdulsalam Hudu (still at large), sometime in September, 2015 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves to convert the total sum of N80,246,470,089.88 (Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand, Eighty-nine Naira, Eighty-eight Kobo), which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of your unlawful activity to wit: criminal breach of trust and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(b) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended,” the EFCC said.

“While ex-Governor Yahaya Bello and Hudu are still at large, Ali Bello and Suleiman, first and second defendants respectively, who were present in court “pleaded not guilty” to all the charges when they were read to them.