The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, March\u00a014, 2024\u00a0dragged former Kogi State\u00a0governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello\u00a0before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja\u00a0for alleged N84billion money laundering offences, \u00a0alongside his nephew\u00a0Ali Bello, Dauda Sulaiman and Abdulsalam Hudu.<\/p>\n
The EFCC is prosecuting\u00a0the\u00a0quartet on an amended\u00a017-count charge\u00a0of\u00a0money laundering, breach of trust\u00a0and misappropriation\u00a0of fund\u00a0to tune of N84, 062,406,089.88 (Eighty-four Billion, Sixty-two Million, Four Hundred and Six Thousand, Eighty-nine Naira, Eighty-eight Kobo).<\/p>\n
To make way for Yahaya Bello\u2019s inclusion in the trial, prosecution counsel Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN,\u00a0informed the court of an application before it for the\u00a0amendment of\u00a0the charges against the defendants, dated February 5, 2024, and filed the same day.\u00a0He then\u00a0prayed that the amended charges\u00a0be read to the defendants for them to take their pleas.\u00a0The judge granted the prayer, overruling objections from\u00a0A.M Aliyu SAN, and Olusegun Joolawo SAN, counsels to\u00a0Ali Bello and Suleiman, first and second defendants.<\/p>\n
Count one\u00a0of the charges\u00a0reads:\u00a0\u201cThat you, Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman, Yahaya Adoza Bello (still at large) and Abdulsalam Hudu (still at large), sometime in September, 2015 in Abuja,\u00a0within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court,\u00a0conspired 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\u00a0Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended.\u201d<\/p>\n
While ex-Governor Yahaya Bello and\u00a0Hudu\u00a0are still at large,\u00a0Ali Bello and Suleiman, first and second defendants respectively, who were present in court \u201cpleaded not guilty\u201d\u00a0to all the charges when\u00a0they were\u00a0read to them.<\/p>\n
In continuation of the trial, Oyedepo \u00a0invited fourth\u00a0Prosecution\u00a0Witness,\u00a0PW4, Yakubu Gana,\u00a0counsel to\u00a0the\u00a0property owner and seller of a property \u00a0located\u00a0in Danube Street, Maitama, Abuja which Ali Bello and Suleiman allegedly bought at the cost of N950million on behalf of ex-governor Yahaya Bello through their lawyer,\u00a0Ramalan Jibril Abdullahi.<\/p>\n
Gana said that, \u201cwe negotiated and agreed on the sum of N950million. Their lawyer, Ramalan Abdullahi, \u00a0said his clients would prefer to pay\u00a0in\u00a0cash\u00a0and\u00a0in dollars. I had to call my client to inform him because he was not in the country at that time. My client cautioned me whether I knew the buyers, and I answered I knew their lawyer way back in secondary school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lawyer and the clients invited me into their office, a bureau de change office at Zone 4, adjacent to Sheraton, now Abuja Continental\u00a0Hotel. They then showed me dollars in\u00a0\u2018Ghana must go,\u2019<\/em>\u00a0but the dollars in\u00a0\u2018Ghana must go\u2019<\/em>\u00a0was not up to that N950million. They said they would make it up by bringing some dollars to make it to N950million. The transaction took us almost two weeks, and the lawyer invited me to the same BDC office for confirmation, then the money was completed in dollar equivalent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In his testimony\u00a0as fifth prosecution witness,\u00a0 Abdullahi told the court that\u00a0though he acted as a go-between in the purchase of the property,\u00a0his\u00a0major assignment\u00a0was to carry out\u00a0due diligence on the said property which paved the way for\u00a0its purchase by Ali Bello and Suleiman, his clients.<\/p>\n Oyedepo requested for the property\u2019s title documents to enable him to tender them in evidence.\u00a0 However, Justice Omotosho ordered\u00a0him\u00a0to formally\u00a0apply to the defendants\u00a0and\u00a0thereafter\u00a0adjourned the matter to\u00a0March 28, 2024\u00a0for continuation of trial.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, March\u00a014, 2024\u00a0dragged former Kogi State\u00a0governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello\u00a0before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja\u00a0for alleged N84billion money…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n