EFCC Operatives Lay Siege To Yahaya Bello’s Residence

Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have laid siege to the Abuja residence of former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.

According to eyewitnesses, EFCC officials barricaded the ex-governor’s residence since 9am on Wednesday.

The purpose of the operation by the anti-graft operatives was unknown as of press time as efforts to speak with them proved abortive.

Some supporters of the former governor were seen in front of the house.

Mid-March, the EFCC indicted Yahaya Bello, in an alleged diversion of about N100 billion, an offence said to have been committed months before he assumed office as governor in September 2015.

The EFCC had joined Yahaya Bello in the amended suit alongside the Chief of Staff to Kogi State Governor, Alli Bello, and one Daudu Suleiman who was re-arraigned by the anti-graft agency before Justice James Omotoso of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

The ex-governor was not a defendant in the original suit, and was not in court on the said day.

Justice Omotoso had granted an accelerated hearing in the matter and had also ordered that all forms of objections must be kept in abeyance till the address stage and the charge were read to them.

In the first count, the former governor, and the two suspects were accused of conspiring with each other in September 2015 and converting N80, 246, 470, 089 to their personal use.

They were also alleged to have run foul of section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 because they ought to have reasonably known that the money was a product of fraud and criminal breach of public trust.

In other charges, the suspects were alleged to have concealed several millions of naira with one Rabiu Musa Tafada, a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator trading under Global Venture in Abuja.