The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has stated that the recent visit of the former Governor of Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello to the Commission’s headquarters was a stunt.
“Even before he arrived at the car park of the EFCC, he had already sent out media information across all the platform that he had presented himself to the EFCC and they were even saying he had been detained and that was not true.
“That alone showed us that he had a gameplan. And that gameplan can only be explained by him alone.”
Speaking on Arise TV The Morning Show on Thursday, the EFCC Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren claimed that Bello who was preferred with 19 charges for money laundering offences amounting to N80,246,470,088.88 was not genuinely prepared to surrender himself.
Uwujaren noted that Bello had another chance to appear before Justice Emeka Nwite at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday, where his ongoing money laundering case was adjourned to October 30, 2024, for a ruling.
“That is enough to convince Nigerians that his presence at the EFCC on the 18th of September was more of a stunt not really that he wanted to abide by the rule of law.
“When EFCC officials went to the Kogi Governor’s lodge to ask him to come back, he would have followed them if he had no issue presenting himself to the commission.
“If he had done that he would have complied with the decision of the court of Appeal which mandated him to formally present himself. That as I am concerned exposed his insincerity in appearing at the car park of the EFCC on the 18th of September,” he said.
Last Wednesday, Bello’s media office released a statement that he had honoured an invitation by the EFCC months after he was declared wanted by the commission.
The EFCC, however, denied that Bello was in its custody in a statement by its spokesperson, Dele Oyewale. The agency added that Bello remains wanted with a subsisting warrant of arrest.
Later that night, EFCC operatives surrounded the Kogi State Government Lodge in Abuja to apprehend former governor Yahaya Bello.
“If he wanted to comply with the law, what he should have done immediately after he arrived at the premises is to go to the security post and tell the security on guard that he has come to present himself. They would have known what they should have done,” Uwujaren stated.
