Kogi State former governor, Yahaya Bello is in serious trouble.
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Ola Olukoyede has vowed to follow his prosecution to a logical conclusion.
Olukoyede said: “A sitting governor because he knows he is going, you move money directly from the government to Bureau de Change, use it to pay the child’s school fee in advance in dollars. $720,000 in anticipation that he was going to leave the government house in a poor state like Kogi. And you want me to close my eyes, under the guise of I am being used at this stage of my life. By who? I assumed office here six months ago.”
“I did not initiate the case. I inherited the case file. I called for the file, I called for the report and I said something is wrong here. Do you know on my honour, I put a call through to him, something I was not supposed to have done because he is a former Governor.”
“I told him, Sir, there are issues, let us clarify these issues. I am under camera. He told me Thank You, sir, I know, but I can’t come. There is a lady, a Senator that he learnt she has surrounded the EFCC with over 100 journalists to come and intimidate and embarrass him.”
“I said if that’s the case. I am going to pass you through my gate, the special man’s gate, my floor, you will come through directly to my floor. You have my respect. I will invite my operatives to come and interview you in my own office to allay the fears. He said Thank You, sir, but can’t they come to my village? My director of investigation sent a message to him. We need this institution to survive.”
“I did not go after this man, not until the day we got this order. I told them to mount surveillance to forestall the breakdown of law and order. Eventually, when we got this order, we were supposed to move in. That was when the Governor (Usman Ododo) came in with his vehicle. Even though, they have denied, we have all the video evidence and he whisked this man away.”
“On arriving at his premises, we met over 30 armed policemen and 10 Counter Terrorist Unit personnel with him (Yahaya Bello). His CSO is a senior DSS officer. We met them there. I went with my gallant men, over 50 of them armed to the teeth. If I had opened fire, we would have killed people, and there would have been casualties. That is what people are condemning us for.”
“We are a sophisticated law enforcement agency, we are not the military. What we investigate are financial crimes (white-collar-crimes). There are certain things that may be lawful for us but may not be expedient and nobody would have asked me to do it. I am a lawyer. So, if I had killed one or two people because of a white-collar crime, what would I have done if it were terrorists?”
“Was it not worse for him to have even run away that day because if he had submitted himself to us that day, we wouldn’t have declared him wanted.”
Yahaya Bello was declared wanted by the EFCC after failing to answer its invitations over alleged N80 billion fraud.
Meanwhile, the EFCC is seeking to arraign him on 19 counts bordering on alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds to the tune of N80.2 billion.