April 25, (THEWILL)- The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has disclosed that he made personal efforts to invite the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Adoza Bello, to respond to investigations regarding his alleged involvement in money laundering to the tune of N80,246,470,089.88 (Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-Six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand and Eighty Nine Naira, Eighty Eight Kobo).
Olukoyede stated this in Abuja on Tuesday, while addressing media executives at the Corporate Headquarters of the EFCC.
According to him, he had a telephone conversation with Bello, offering him ample opportunities to present himself for interrogation by investigators of the EFCC.
“On my honour, I put a call to him to honour him as a former governor. He said, I can’t come, claiming that a certain lady has surrounded the EFCC with over 100 Journalists to embarrass or intimidate him and all that stuff.
“I said if that is your fear, I will make you come directly to my floor. I will invite my operatives to interrogate you in my own office. What could be more honourable than that? Do you know what he said? ‘Can’t they come to my village?’ My Director of Investigations also sent a message to him”, he said.
The EFCC boss said he was worried at the report of larceny available to the EFCC concerning the former governor.
“A sitting governor, because he knew he was going, he moved money directly from the government’s account to a bureau-de-change to pay his children’s school fees in advance, $720,000, in anticipation that he was going to leave government house”, he said.
Olukoyede also disclosed that the EFCC, in its bid to ensure the safety and stability of the foreign exchange market, has uncovered a new fraudulent scheme called P2P, peer to peer trading scheme.
The platform, according to him, is operating outside the official banking and financial corridors, with more than 300 (Three hundred) accounts linked to it already frozen by the EFCC.
He reaffirmed the commitment of the Commission to the economic growth and development of the country, promising that the EFCC would not relent in the exercise of its mandate.
Olukayode told the media executives that the Commission has recovered more than N120 billion from fraudsters within six months and secured more than 1,300 convictions.
He called on Nigerians to be more dedicated to the nation, insisting that patriotic Nigerians should offer more support to the EFCC because the Commission is crucial to the growth and development of Nigeria.
‘’If you support the EFCC, you are working for the growth of Nigeria. We all have stakes in the well-being of our nation”, he said.
Meanwhile, the former governor, was on Tuesday, April 23, served his charges through his counsel, Abdulwahab Muhammad (SAN), after Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja, ruled that the defendant should be served through his counsel after he failed to appear before the court.
The anti-graft agency is prosecuting Yahaya Bello, alongside Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman and Abdulsalam Hudu, on 19-count charges bordering on money laundering to the tune of N80,246,470,089.88 (Eight Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand and Eighty-nine Naira, Eighty-eighty Kobo).
At Tuesday’s sitting, Bello’s counsel, Adeola Adedipe (SAN), prayed the court to quash the arrest warrant granted the Commission against Bello, arguing that Tuesday’s substituted service to the defendant through his counsel Abdulwahab Muhammad (SAN), has invalidated the arrest warrant.
“The court is expected to do justice at all times. A warrant of arrest cannot be hanging on Bello’s neck when we are in this court. It appears to us that the defendant will not get justice because the court granted a warrant of arrest before service”, he said.
However, prosecution counsel, Kemi Piniero (SAN), in response, urged the court to decline hearing on any motion from Bello’s legal team until the defendant is physically present in court for his arraignment.
“The stage we are in now is to determine the whereabouts of the defendant. He cannot be in his house while the trial proceeds without him coming here to take his plea.
“My Lord, this is a criminal matter not a civil matter, he must come and take his plea. It is a matter of over N80 billion. All these applications by the defendant are to prevent his arraignment and frustrate the commencement of trial”, he said.
Justice Nwite adjourned until May 10, ruling on Bello’s application, seeking a revocation of his arrest warrant.
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