The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has filed new corruption charges against former Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello, who is still being sought for an earlier money laundering case. The new case consists of 16 counts, with two other persons – Umar Shuaibu Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu – charged as co-defendants. The charges include criminal breach of trust involving the diversion of more than N110 billion entrusted in Bello’s care as Kogi State governor.
The commission also alleges that Bello dishonestly acquired properties located in choice areas of Abuja and one in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with funds he allegedly diverted from the state government’s treasury. For instance, the commission said the former Kogi State governor took N100 million from the government’s treasury to buy himself a property at 1160 Cadastral Zone C03, Gwarimpa II, Abuja, in 2021.
The fresh case significantly raises the stakes in EFCC’s efforts to bring Mr. Bello to court, with the former governor continuing to fight hard to stave off trial. The trial has been marked by dramas both within and outside the courtroom, including a recent controversial surrender by Mr. Bello, which the EFCC curiously rejected, followed by a shootout during a failed arrest attempt by the agency’s operatives at the Kogi State Government Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja.
To halt the trial, Mr. Bello has pursued various legal avenues, including writing to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to transfer the case from Abuja to Lokoja, filing a series of applications urging the trial judge, filing a fundamental human rights case and a contempt case at the Kogi State High Court, and filing appeals at the Court of Appeal in Abuja. All of these efforts failed, with the Court of Appeal in Abuja affirming the EFCC’s authority to prosecute him and ordering him to surrender to the Federal High Court for arraignment in its judgements delivered in July and August.
