N80.2b Fraud: Yahaya Bello can only hide, he can’t escape trial—EFCC

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has vowed that so far he remains the commission’s helmsman,  former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello would be prosecuted to a logical conclusion.

Olukoyede said made the vow while addressing journalists at the Corporate Headquarters of the EFCC in Abuja on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

The EFCC is prosecuting Bello on a 19-count bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N80.2 billion.

Olukoyede added that everyone involved in obstructing Bello’s arrest from his Abuja residence will also face the full wrath of the law.

“If I do not personally oversee the completion of the investigation regarding Yahaya Bello, I will tender my resignation as the EFCC chairman,” he said.

The EFCC boss stressed that the anti-graft agency did not violate any law while trying to arrest the former governor in Abuja.

Olukoyede said: “We have obeyed the law. I inherited the case and I didn’t create it. Why has he not submitted himself to the law?

“I have arraigned two past governors who have been granted bail now – Willie Obiano and Abdulfatah Ahmed.

“If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and Chief Olu Agunloye why not Yahaya Bello.

“We would have gone after Bello since January but we waited for the court order.

“As early as 7 a.m., my gallant men were there. Over 50 of them; they mounted surveillance.

“We met over 30 armed policemen there. We would have exchanged fire and there would have been casualties.

“My men were about to move in when the governor of Kogi drove in and they later changed the narrative.”

It would be recalled that EFCC operatives, on April 17, mounted surveillance around Bello’s house in Abuja to arrest and prosecute Bello for alleged N80.2 billion money laundering.

He was however whisked away from his residence by his successor, Governor Usman Ododo.

The anti-graft agency later arraigned the former governor in absentia before the court.