From Fred Itua, Abuja
Less than one week after the embattled immediate-past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, met with President Bola Tinubu, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yesterday morning, laid a siege to his house, located at Wuse Zone 4, Abuja.
The former governor has been at loggerheads with the EFCC over a multi-billion naira fraud case levelled against him by the anti-graft agency.
Daily Sun had exclusively reported last week that EFCC had got the nod of President Tinubu and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, to prosecute Bello.
Bello, alongside his nephew and other former government officials, allegedly siphoned over N80 billion while he held sway as governor.
Over 140 properties have also been linked to the embattled former governor, both in Nigeria and abroad. His media aide, Mohammed Onogwu, didn’t respond to calls or messages to confirm the latest development.
Spokesman of the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, couldn’t be reached to confirm or deny the siege when contacted by Daily Sun on the phone. A source in EFCC has, however, revealed that they’re behind the siege and that the operatives won’t vacate the residence until Bello is arrested.
The source said Bello has repeatedly refused to honour a series of invitations extended to him by the commission, to respond to allegations levelled against him.
Instead, the source said Bello has been using civil society groups “to blackmail the anti-graft agency and scouting for black market court orders to stop his arrest.”
However, a visit to the facility revealed the presence of armed EFCC operatives, who had condoned all the entry and exit points into the residence. His supporters and former officials of the state government were also seen loitering round the vicinity, but unable to access the facility.
Bello’s office, in a media release, said despite a subsisting order of injunction granted on February 9, 2024 by the High Court of Justice, Lokoja Division, between Yahaya Bello v. EFCC, restraining the commission, either by itself or its agents, from harassing, arresting, detaining or prosecuting Alhaji Yahaya Bello, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive fundamental rights enforcement action, the EFCC is bent on arresting him.
It said the EFCC was duly served with that order on February 12, 2024 and on February 26, 2024, when the EFCC filed an Appeal (Appeal No.: CA/ABJ/CV/175/2024: Economic and Financial Crimes Commission v. Alhaji Yahaya Bello) against the said order to the Court of Appeal, Abuja division.
“We call on President Bola Tinubu to call the EFCC to order, in the interest of legal sanity,” the state statement read.
Bello, since he left office, has refused to attend any public function or visit certain places over fears that he may be picked up by EFCC operatives who are believed to have been trailing him. The former governor, who, sources said, was a permanent guest at the Government House, Lokoja, and occasionally in Abuja, had made frantic but unsuccessful efforts to get an audience with President Tinubu.
Following his failure to meet President Tinubu, Bello, one of the sources said, hired his political godson and governor of Kogi State, Ahmed Usman Ododo, to lobby powerful elements in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to intervene. Ododo’s efforts to see President Tinubu on the issue have also failed.
Last month, Governor Ododo met with the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Ganduje, to make a strong case for Bello. An APC chieftain told Daily Sun that Ganduje declined to intervene, maintaining that it was against the anti-graft policy thrust of President Tinubu.