EFCC, Bello’s men differ as anti-graft agency detains ex-gov

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has detained the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, over alleged multi-billion naira fraud.

  While the anti-graft agency said its men arrested the former governor, a statement from Bello’s media office has it that he went to the EFCC office in Abuja with his lawyers, yesterday morning, following the Supreme Court judgment that dismissed the case by some states on the constitutionality of the anti-graft agency.

  However, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday, struck out a fundamental right enforcement suit filed by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, seeking to prohibit EFCC, from arresting him after his tenure in office.

  EFCC Spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, in a telephone conversation, yesterday, disclosed that the former governor was arrested about 12.54 p.m. and detained at the commission’s cooperate headquarters in Jabi, Abuja.

  The commission had accused the former governor of money laundering, criminal breach of trust and the misappropriation of N80.2 billion.

  In April, the EFCC declared Bello wanted after unsuccessful attempts to arrest him. In August, the Court of Appeal in Abuja directed him to surrender himself for arraignment.

  EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, alleged that Bello had withdrawn $720,000 from Kogi accounts to pay his child’s school fees in advance.

  The commission also filed 19 counts against Bello bordering on alleged money laundering.
  However, the scheduled arraignment was delayed due to Bello’s absence.

  At the last hearing on November 14, the EFCC sought adjournment till November 27 in the fresh case it instituted against Bello, saying that the 30-day window was still running for the summons earlier issued.

  In September, Bello honoured the EFCC invitation in the company of Governor Usman Ododo. They were at the car park of the Abuja office of EFCC, but the anti-graft agency ignored him. EFCC, instead attempted, on the same day, to apprehend him at the Kogi Government Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja, where he was being sheltered by Ododo.

  The encounter resulted in hours-long shootout following a confrontation that reportedly ensued between EFCC operatives and the governor’s security details. Bello escaped from the scene in Ododo’s convoy amid the chaos.

OYEWALE said Bello never submitted himself, but got arrested by the operatives of the agency in Abuja.
  “He is having a session with investigators of the commission. He is being detained in our custody and he is going to be arraigned accordingly. His presence in court is the only step that will convince Nigerians that his touted submission to the EFCC, which was widely reported in the media on September 18, was not a stunt.
 
“Till date, Bello is yet to take his plea in the alleged N80.2 billion money laundering charges preferred against him before Justice Emeka Nwite. His invasion of the corporate headquarters of EFCC with a retinue of security details, hand-to-hand cahoots and carriage with a sitting governor having immunity, unwarranted media glitz, scripted sleight of hands unknown to the public and other backend intelligence available to the commission compelled a tactical rebuff of his touted surrender offer.

JUSTICE Abdulmalik struck out the matter after counsel who appeared for Sanwo-Olu, Gbenga Akande, moved the motion for the discontinuance of the case.

  The judge had, on October 29, fixed November 26 for further mention on the suit.
  The adjournment followed the submission of EFCC’s lawyer, Hadiza Afegbua, that she had yet to see the fresh originating summons served on them by Darlington Ozurumba, who filed the suit on the governor’s behalf.

  Out of the 10 cases scheduled for hearing before Justice Abdulmalik, yesterday, suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/773/2024 between Babajide Sanwo-Olu and EFCC was not on the cause list.

  It was gathered that the case had been struck out on October 31 after it was withdrawn.

  Sanwo-Olu, through his counsel, Ozurumba, had sued the anti-graft agency as sole defendant over alleged threat to arrest, detain and prosecute him after his tenure as governor.

  In the originating summons, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/773/2024 dated and filed on June 6, the governor raised seven questions and sought 11 reliefs.

  He, therefore, sought an order restraining the EFCC from harassing, intimidating, arresting, detaining, interrogating or prosecuting him in connection with his tenure as the governor of Lagos, among others.

  But the EFCC, in its counter-affidavit, urged the court not to grant the reliefs sought by Sanwo-Olu, describing it as speculative.