The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has leveled corruption charges against former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, mere days following the conclusion of his eight-year tenure. The charges are related to the alleged diversion of over N80 billion. Bello officially handed over to his successor, Usman Ododo, on January 27, only to find himself facing legal proceedings shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, the EFCC chose not to initiate a fresh case but rather amended existing charges, originally targeting Bello’s nephew and an associate for the diversion of Kogi State funds. This amendment added the former governor as a co-defendant, introducing a few additional counts. The case, identified as FHC\/ABJ\/CR\/550\/2022, was already in progress before Judge James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, with Ali Bello (Bello’s nephew) and Dauda Suleiman as the initial defendants.<\/p>\n
In the amended case, Bello stands accused of converting N80.2 billion of Kogi State Government funds for personal use. The charge also implicates Abdulsalami Hud, described as “at large,” and the other co-defendants, Ali Bello and Dauda Suleiman. Notably, the count places the alleged offense around September 2015, a period predating Bello’s assumption of office, portraying him as “at large.”<\/p>\n
Reacting to the charges, the former Kogi State Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, expressed condemnation, highlighting the absurdity in the EFCC’s claim that Bello was “at large” when he was, in fact, serving in public office. Fanwo criticized the charges as “ridiculous” and “laughable,” questioning the integrity of the EFCC in pursuing justice and its commitment to combating corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has leveled corruption charges against former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, mere days following the conclusion of his eight-year tenure. The charges are related to the alleged diversion of over N80 billion. Bello officially handed over to his successor, Usman Ododo, on January 27, only to find himself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":18758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-18757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18757"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18761,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18757\/revisions\/18761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}