Court rejects Yahaya Bello’s foreign trip request, gives reason

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The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Thursday declined the former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello’s application for the release of his passport to enable him to travel to the United Kingdom for medical reasons.

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Turning down the request in a ruling, the judge, Maryanne Anenih, ruled that Mr Bello’s passport was not in the court’s custody.

She said the court could not give what it did not have, “therefore the application is void, not just premature but preemptive.”

“There is nothing to indicate that his international passport is before this court. It is not before this court nor the registrar of the court,” she ruled.

Ms Anenih also noted that the court could have considered the submissions of the lawyers if the passport had been before the FCT High Court. She held that the application was rendered incompetent by the passport not being in the court’s possession.

The judge said that the application submitted by Mr Bello was misleading in its assumption that his passport was before the FCT High Court.

She clarified that the bail conditions given to the defendant had required him to submit his passport or an affidavit if it was before another court.

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Battles for passport at two courts

Earlier this month, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which is prosecuting Mr Bello alongside two co-defendants on charges of diverting N110 billion belonging to Kogi State, opposed the application for the release of the former governor’s passport at a hearing.

The court ordered the seizure of the passport last year as part of the bail conditions imposed on Mr Bello.

It also barred him from travelling abroad without the court’s express permission.

The judge said Mr Bello must apply for and obtain the court’s order for the release of his passport for him to travel outside Nigeria while his trial was pending.

However, before the FCT High Court gave the bail ruling, Mr Bello was arraigned over a separate N80.2 billion money laundering case before the Federal High Court in Abuja, which also ordered the seizure of his passport as a bail condition.

Mr Bello submitted his passport to the Federal High Court before he was subsequently brought before the FCT High Court.

READ ALSO: N3bn Fraud Trial: Yahaya Bello’s nephew gets court’s approval to travel abroad

Last month, Mr Bello sought permission from both the Federal High Court and the FCT High Court for the planned medical trip to the UK.

The EFCC opposed the applications, first before the Federal High Court and subsequently before the FCT High Court.

During the hearing at the FCT High Court, the EFCC argued that Mr Bello’s application ought to wait for the Federal High Court to deliver its ruling, among other grounds of objection.

Needless order

Ruling on Mr Bello’s application Thursday, Ms Anenih, the FCT High Court judge, noted that it was needles to issue an order for the release of the passport since Mr Bello swore to an affidavit confirming that the passport was submitted at the Federal High Court as part of his bail conditions in the separate trial.

“The simple logic is that the passport cannot be with two different courts at the same time,” Mrs Anenih said.

“Since the defendant admitted depositing same with the Federal High Court, there is no reason making any order here in regard to the application. Courts do not make orders in vain.”

Following the ruling, the judge scheduled continuation of trial for 8 and 9 October and 13 November.

Background

EFCC is prosecuting Mr Bello alongside two co-defendants on charges of diverting N110 billion belonging to Kogi State while he was governor.

Mr Bello is being tried alongside Umar Shuaibu Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu on 16 counts of criminal breach of trust and money laundering.

The EFCC alleged that the trio diverted over N110 billion from the Kogi State treasury between 2016 and 2023, when Mr Bello was governor.

They all pleaded not guilty to the charges when arraigned on 27 November 2024. Four prosecution witnesses have so far testified in the trial.

Mr Bello also faces related money laundering charges involving N80.2 billion allegedly belonging to Kogi State at the Federal High Court in Abuja.