The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has filed an objection to the bail application of Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the former Governor of Kogi State, who is facing serious corruption charges. The request was presented before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Maitama, Abuja.
EFCC’s legal team, led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Kemi Pinheiro, argued that the former governor should not be granted bail due to his past actions. They claimed that Bello had repeatedly failed to attend his previous court hearings in a related case and had shown no willingness to fully cooperate with the legal process.
According to EFCC, this behavior makes him a flight risk and undermines the bail application.
Bello, along with two co-defendants, Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, and possession of illegally obtained property. The charges are linked to an alleged N110 billion fraud involving the Kogi State government.
Bello’s legal team, led by former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Joseph Daudu, SAN, filed the bail application on November 22. They argued that the former governor is entitled to the presumption of innocence under Nigerian law and that granting bail would allow him to prepare his defense effectively.
During the proceedings, Daudu emphasized that Bello had only been served with the charge documents on the night of November 26, just hours before the hearing, and was present in court out of respect for the summons. The defense lawyer further urged the court to disregard the EFCC’s claims about past cases, which were unrelated to the current charges.
EFCC countered by claiming that the bail request was premature since the defendants had not yet been fully arraigned. According to EFCC, bail applications should only be heard after the arraignment has taken place, making the application “incompetent” at this stage.
The former governor and his co-defendants face accusations of embezzling large sums of money from Kogi State’s treasury, which they allegedly used to purchase expensive properties, including several prime real estate locations in Abuja and Dubai. The EFCC also claims that the defendants transferred millions of dollars to foreign accounts and possessed large amounts of illicit funds.
