The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has filed new charges against Yahaya Bello, the former governor of Kogi State, escalating the total amount involved in the fraud case to N110 billion. Bello, who is currently wanted by authorities, faces accusations of money laundering and misappropriation of public funds while in office.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the EFCC had charged Bello alongside his nephew, Ali Bello, and two others, Dauda Suliman and Abdulsalam Hudu, with 19 counts of money laundering involving N80,246,470,088.88. However, the latest charges, filed on September 25, reveal that the total sum involved in the money laundering offences has now increased to N110,446,470,089.<\/p>\n
The new 16-count charge, which surfaced on Wednesday, names Yahaya Bello, Umar Oricha, and Abdulsalam Hudu as the primary defendants. According to the EFCC, the trio used state funds to purchase a total of 12 properties in various high-end districts of Abuja, including Maitama, Wuse Zone 4, Guzape, and Gwarimpa.<\/p>\n
The commission accused the defendants of committing criminal breach of trust with the N110 billion entrusted to them. Specifically, in 2023, the EFCC alleges that Bello and his co-accused spent N950 million from the Kogi State treasury to acquire a luxury property located at No. 35 Danube Street, Maitama District, Abuja. This act, according to the EFCC, violates Section 311 of the Penal Code Law Cap. 89 of Northern Nigeria, 1963, which is punishable under Section 312 of the same law.<\/p>\n
Other properties allegedly acquired by the defendants include:
\n– A property on Block D, Manzini Street, Wuse Zone 4, purchased in 2022 for N170 million.
\n– A N100 million property at No. 1773 Guzape District, Abuja, purchased in 2018.
\n– A N550 million property at No. 2934A Cadastral Zone A06, also known as No. 1 Ikogosi Spring Close, Maitama District, purchased in 2020.<\/p>\n
In addition to property acquisitions, the EFCC revealed that in 2021, the accused transferred $570,330 and $556,265 from Nigerian public funds to an account at TD Bank in the United States.<\/p>\n
One of the most significant accusations in the charge sheet is that between 2017 and 2018, Bello allegedly had control over a total of N677,848,000 unlawfully obtained from Bespoque Business Solution Limited, further compounding the charges against him.<\/p>\n
If found guilty, the former governor and his co-defendants could face severe legal consequences, including significant prison time, as well as forfeiture of the assets acquired with the stolen funds. The case is expected to draw significant public attention, given the magnitude of the alleged fraud and its implications for governance and accountability in Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has filed new charges against Yahaya Bello, the former governor of Kogi State, escalating the total amount involved in the fraud case to N110 billion. Bello, who is currently wanted by authorities, faces accusations of money laundering and misappropriation of public funds while in office. Earlier, the EFCC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49890","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49891,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49890\/revisions\/49891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}