The
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, March 14, 2024
dragged former Kogi State governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello before Justice James
Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja for alleged N84billion money laundering offences, alongside his nephew Ali Bello, Dauda Sulaiman and
Abdulsalam Hudu.
The
EFCC is prosecuting the quartet on an amended 17-count charge of money
laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of fund to tune of N84,
062,406,089.88 (Eighty-four Billion, Sixty-two Million, Four Hundred and Six
Thousand, Eighty-nine Naira, Eighty-eight Kobo).
To
make way for Yahaya Bello’s inclusion in the trial, prosecution counsel Rotimi
Oyedepo, SAN, informed the court of an application before it for the amendment
of the charges against the defendants, dated February 5, 2024, and filed the
same day. He then prayed that the amended charges be read to the defendants for
them to take their pleas. The judge granted the prayer, overruling objections
from A.M Aliyu SAN, and Olusegun Joolawo SAN, counsels to Ali Bello and
Suleiman, first and second defendants.
Count
one of the charges reads: “That you, Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman, Yahaya Adoza
Bello (still at large) and Abdulsalam Hudu (still at large), sometime in
September, 2015 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court,
conspired amongst yourselves to convert the total sum of N80,246,470,089.88
(Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy
Thousand, Eighty-nine Naira, Eighty-eight Kobo), which sum you reasonably ought
to have known forms part of the proceeds of your unlawful activity to wit:
criminal breach of trust and you thereby committed an offence contrary to
Section 18(b) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the Money Laundering
(Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended.”
While
ex-Governor Yahaya Bello and Hudu are still at large, Ali Bello and Suleiman,
first and second defendants respectively, who were present in court “pleaded
not guilty” to all the charges when they were read to them.
In
continuation of the trial, Oyedepo
invited fourth Prosecution Witness, PW4, Yakubu Gana, counsel to the
property owner and seller of a property
located in Danube Street, Maitama, Abuja which Ali Bello and Suleiman
allegedly bought at the cost of N950million on behalf of ex-governor Yahaya
Bello through their lawyer, Ramalan Jibril Abdullahi.
Gana
said that, “we negotiated and agreed on the sum of N950million. Their lawyer,
Ramalan Abdullahi, said his clients
would prefer to pay in cash and in dollars. I had to call my client to inform
him because he was not in the country at that time. My client cautioned me
whether I knew the buyers, and I answered I knew their lawyer way back in
secondary school.
“The lawyer and the clients invited me into their office, a bureau de change office at Zone 4, adjacent to Sheraton, now Abuja Continental Hotel. They then showed me dollars in ‘Ghana must go,’ but the dollars in ‘Ghana must go’ was not up to that N950million. They said they would make it up by bringing some dollars to make it to N950million. The transaction took us almost two weeks, and the lawyer invited me to the same BDC office for confirmation, then the money was completed in dollar equivalent,” he said.
In
his testimony as fifth prosecution witness, Abdullahi told the court that
though he acted as a go-between in the purchase of the property, his major
assignment was to carry out due diligence on the said property which paved the
way for its purchase by Ali Bello and Suleiman, his clients.
Oyedepo requested for the property’s title documents to enable him to tender them in evidence. However, Justice Omotosho ordered him to formally apply to the defendants and thereafter adjourned the matter to March 28, 2024 for continuation of trial.
0 Comments