Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has threatened to resign if besieged former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted. The ant graft boss stated this while speaking to newsmen yesterday Tuesday at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja, the agency chairman revealed that all those who aided in the obstruction of the former governor’s arrest must be brought to justice. The anti corruption office, EFCC had on 18th April, 2024 declared Bello wanted over an alleged N80 billion financial crime he committed while serving as the kogi state governor.
Bello has been on the run for scheduled arraignments in court as he has been served notice since he was declared wanted.
Olukayode revealed that out of personal respect, he personally put a call through to Yahaya Bello to appear before the commission to answer some questions contain in the charges pressed against him.
Unfortunately he said Yahaya Bello refused to appear before the ant graft as invited.
On his part, Yahaya Bello had denied that he was ever invited by EFCC, daring the anti-graft agency to produce a copy of the invitation letter.
In a statement through his media office on Tuesday, Bello accused the commission of spreading lies against him and an attempt to tarnish his image before the public.
Meanwhile, the EFCC chairman said: “If I do not personally oversee the completion of the investigation regarding Yahaya Bello, I will tender my resignation as the chairman of the EFCC.
“I have arraigned two past governors who have been granted bail now – Willie Obiano and Abdulfatah Ahmed. We would have gone after Bello since January but we waited for the court order.
“If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Chief Olu Agunloye, my kinsman, why not Yahaya Bello? He Olukayode queried.
In one of the revelation, Olukoyede revealed that the former governor transferred $720,000 from the government’s coffers to a bureau de change before leaving office to pay in advance for his child’s school fee.
“A sitting governor, because he knows he is going, moved money directly from government to bureau de change, used it to pay the child’s school fee in advance, $720,000 in advance, 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 to that under the guise of ‘I’m being used. Being used by who at this stage of my life?,” the EFCC chairman said.
In the interim, Yahaya Bello, had on Tuesday, prayed a Federal High Court Abuja to vacate the arrest warrant order issued to the EFCC against him on April 17.
Bello, through his lawyer Adeola Adedipe, SAN, made the application following an order by Justice Emeka Nwite, directing the EFCC to effect the service of the charge and proof of evidence on the ex-governor’s lead counsel, Abdulwahab Mohammed, SAN.
Meanwhile, Justice Nwite had earlier ordered the EFCC’s lawyer, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, to serve Mohammed, the leading counsel of Bello, with bundles of the charge and the proof of evidence.
However, shortly after the ruling, Adedipe argued that the arrest warrant order, having been made before the charge, ought to be set aside suo motu (on its own accord, without any request by the parties involved).
“The defendant wants to come to court but he is afraid that there is an order of arrest hanging on his head,” Adedipe said.
The court has subsequently fixed May 10 for ruling on the application seeking setting aside the April 17 arrest warrant issued against him.
Justice Emeka Nwite fixed the date after Pinheiro and Adedipe adopted their processes and presented their arguments in the motion.NAN