Mr. Olukoyede Olanipekun, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission reaffirmed yesterday, that the anti-graft organization would exert every effort to hold Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the former governor of Kogi State, accountable for his term in office.
During a media briefing in Abuja, Olukoyede stated that Yahaya Bello was trying to avoid going to trial by engaging in petty financial mismanagement, one of which was sending money from Kogi State through Bureau D’change vendors.
According to the chairman of EFCC, Bello once ordered his cousin to transfer $750,000 to a BDC so that his child’s international school fees could be paid in advance.
According to him, the agency was about to arrest Bello last week, but a governor and thirty armed police officers stopped them. The agency had planned to arrest Bello as early as January of this year, but they waited to get a warrant of arrest from the Federal High Court.
Olukoyede stated that even though the EFCC had 50 armed operatives who were ready to engage the Bello’s House police officers, they chose to proceed cautiously in order to prevent further harm.
He did, however, pledge that everyone who helped Bello evade capture last week will be found out and dealt with legally.
“We have not violated any law regarding Yahaya Bello,” Olukoyede declared. “Yes, we have complied with the Kogi High Court’s ruling, which mandated that the EFCC bring Yahaya Bello before the FHC and file charges against him. We continued not to prosecute him in spite of it”.
“I personally asked Bello to come to my office for an interview, but he declined and asked us to meet with him in his village. It is regrettable that after having done numerous things with Kogi’s money, he refuses to go in court to vindicate his record”.
In one instance, he utilized his relative to transfer $751,000 through BDC to cover his child’s upfront school expenses. Before bringing charges against him, we don’t require him to provide testimony.
But he has declined to appear in court to address the allegations.
“We have an arrest warrant from the FHC to bring Yahaya Bello into court. Let me clarify that everyone who helped Yahaya Bello escape, even those who currently have immunity, will go on trial”.
Regarding the economy, Olukoyede disclosed that the commission had recently frozen 300 accounts belonging to illegal financial firms that were being used to manipulate the value of Nigerian Naira and cause instability in the market.
The chairman went on, “We froze 300 accounts in illicit forex trading and found that one of those guys traded with N50 billion.”
In response to a question regarding Senator Hadi Sirika’s arrest as the former minister of aviation, Olukoyede stated that he could neither confirm nor deny the arrest but acknowledged that the EFCC had started looking into the activities of the ministry and its officials.
He clarified that the EFCC’s investigation concerned the aviation ministry’s operations during the previous administration, not just Hadi Sirika.
We are looking into the previous minister and the ministry of aviation. It concerns national interest, but it is beyond him.
“Yes, we are looking into it, and at the end of the day, we will share any findings we may have. Some people might face charges in court”, Olukoyede continued.
