{"id":120744,"date":"2025-07-17T16:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T15:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=120744"},"modified":"2025-07-17T16:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T15:31:12","slug":"fct-court-declines-yahaya-bellos-request-for-passport-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/fct-court-declines-yahaya-bellos-request-for-passport-release\/","title":{"rendered":"FCT Court Declines Yahaya Bello\u2019s Request for Passport Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Lizzy Chirkpi<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has once again met a judicial stumbling block in his bid to retrieve his international passport, which he claims is necessary for medical travel abroad.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the resumed hearing on Thursday, July 17, 2025, Justice Maryanne Anenih of the FCT High Court firmly ruled that the court could not grant Bello\u2019s request because the international passport in question was not in its custody but with the Federal High Court, where the former governor is facing a separate criminal charge.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ruling followed an application filed by Bello\u2019s counsel, Chief Joseph Daudu (SAN), who on June 20, 2025, sought the release of the ex-governor\u2019s travel document \u201cto enable him to travel for medical attention.\u201d According to Daudu, the motion dated June 19 and supported by a 22-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Bello himself requested the registrar to hand over the passport.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, a review of the court\u2019s records revealed a different picture. Although earlier bail conditions had required Bello to deposit his travel documents with the court\u2019s registry, Justice Anenih said a thorough search confirmed that the passport was not currently in the FCT High Court\u2019s possession.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;The international passport cannot be in two places at the same time; this court is not in a position to speculate if he has two passports,\u201d she stated, adding that no evidence was brought before the court to suggest otherwise.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The judge clarified that the application submitted by Bello was fundamentally flawed in its assumption that the passport was under the custody of the FCT High Court.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">She explained: \u201cThe court would have considered the application for the release of the defendant\u2019s travel document if it were to be in its custody,\u201d but emphasized that \u201ceven if the request to retrieve the travel passport were to be granted, it would be of no effect since the passport was not in the custody of the court.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Anenih further highlighted that the bail conditions required Bello to either submit the passport or file an affidavit indicating it was before another court. Bello had indeed sworn that the document was with the deputy registrar of the Federal High Court, stating it \u201cwould be presented as soon as it is released to me by the Federal High Court.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Given these facts, Justice Anenih ruled the application incompetent and \u201cmisleading,\u201d stating that \u201cthe court could have considered the submissions of the counsels if the international passport had been before the FCT High Court.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Following the ruling, the court adjourned the matter until October 8, 2025, for continuation of trial.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Bello, alongside Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, is currently facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering and property fraud totaling N110 billion. He is also simultaneously facing a separate set of charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lizzy Chirkpi Former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has once again met a judicial stumbling block in his bid to retrieve his international passport, which he claims is necessary&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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