Security agents, kinsmen urging Bello to disregard EFCC, court – Group

The Vanguard for Credible Representation (VCR) has accused federal security agents of frustrating all attempts made by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to effect a valid and subsisting arrest warrant on a former governor of Kogi State, Mr. Yahaya Bello.

VCR Executive Director, Akinloye Oyeniyi who made this observation on Thursday in Abuja, regretted that: “It is a shame of the nation that the the EFCC continues to bemoan lack of cooperation in its efforts to arrest the former governor, who is being shielded by his kinsman and successor in office.”

Oyeniyi called on the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to issue orders to their operatives to aid the EFCC in fetching the governor and to answer to the 18-count charges of money laundering preferred against him.

He stated: “The drama that ensued in the attempt to bring to trial, the former governor ot Kogi Slate, Yahava Bello is not only nauseating and demoralising but also has made Nigeria a laughing stock in the international community.

“The nation is now viewed as a country where certain people of high political status are above the laws of the land. If we may ask, where is the touted synergy among the security apparatus of the nation-state?

“What happened to the pledge by each and every member of the security and law enforcement agencies to uphold the laws of the land, regardless of whose ox is gored, and without fear or favour.”

He went on: “That the declared-wanted former governor, along with a sitting govenor, arrived at the car park of the EFCC on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, with the full accompaniment of Ododo’s convoy security details, has brought to the fore, the germane question in our search for nationhood.

“Who are the security agents attached to VIPs, government officials, and other politically exposed persons loyal to?. Will it be too much if the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of the Department of State Security Service issue orders to their operatives to aid EFCC in fetching the former governor?

“The above questions have come to the fore, and they are critical to our evolving nation state. Why is former governor finding it difficult to clear his name of all these allegations? Why will the EFCC be looking for Yahaya Bello when the same person is surrounded by security agents of the state, paid by the state?.

“What is expected in a virile nation would have been that security agents around Governor Ododo would have been instructed by their respective commands to help both Yahaya Bello and the EFCC or the Court to access justice, especially when a court of the land had issued a valid and subsisting warrant of arrest on the former governor.

“Is it not a huge joke that the court issued a bench warrant on Yahaya Bello and the EFCC, a statutory federal agency, is still seeking his arrest while he is being protected by federal security agents provided for Governor Usman Ododo by the Federal Government?”