The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday granted Bello Bodejo, the national president of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, bail in the sum of N2 billion in his alleged $2.63 million money laundering trial.
Judge Inyang Ekwo admitted Mr Bodejo to bail with two sureties in the like sum. The judge also fixed 5, 6 and 7 October for the commencement of the trial.
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As part of the bail conditions, the judge ordered that one of the sureties must be an Abuja resident with a three-year tax clearance certificate.
The second surety must own landed property worth N2 billion in Abuja. Mr Ekwo directed that the court registrar must verify the property’s title documents.
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The judge also ordered Mr Bodejo to deposit his international passport with the court and barred him from travelling outside Nigeria without the court’s permission.
In the ruling, Mr Ekwo held that the offences are bailable and that the court had the discretion to grant bail.
The court had, on 9 July, reserved a ruling on Mr Bodejo’s bail application after hearing arguments from both parties.
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Mr Bodejo was arraigned on allegations of laundering about $2.63 million. He pleaded not guilty to all the counts after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) read the charges to him.
Following his arraignment, the judge ordered that he be remanded in the custody of the EFCC pending the determination of his bail application.
The EFCC, through its lawyer, Wahab Shittu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed the charge dated 24 June against Mr Bodejo as the sole defendant.
After the defendant entered his plea, Mr Shittu applied for a trial date and urged the court to remand him.
Defence lawyer Ahmed Raji, also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, informed the court that he had filed a bail application dated 30 June.
Mr Raji argued that the allegations bordered on money laundering, which he said are bailable offences under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015. He urged the court to admit his client to bail.
Following the plea, Mr Shittu asked the court to fix a date for trial and order the defendant’s remand.
The prosecution opposed the application.
Mr Shittu said the EFCC filed a 28-paragraph counter affidavit in opposition to the request.
“We adopt all our processes in opposition to the application, my lord,” he said.
He argued that Mr Bodejo’s own affidavit showed that he had previously been “a guest at the Department of State Services (DSS) for other offences.”
The prosecutor argued that granting bail could expose the public to the risk of further offences.
He also dismissed the defendant’s claim of ill health, noting that the alleged injury was not recent and that he did not appear unhealthy in court.
Mr Shittu further argued that Mr Bodejo could interfere with prosecution witnesses if released on bail. He, however, urged the court to impose stringent conditions should it decide to grant the application.
After hearing both parties, Judge Ekwo adjourned the case until today (20 July) to rule on the bail application and ordered that Mr Bodejo remain in EFCC custody.
PREMIUM TIMES reported in June that the EFCC disclosed in a statement that it had filed money laundering charges against Mr Bodejo over alleged cash payments received from a former Bauchi State Accountant General, Yakubu Adamu.
The commission alleged that Mr Bodejo accepted large sums of cash outside the banking system in transactions that violated Nigeria’s money laundering laws. It subsequently filed the charges before the Federal High Court in Abuja, leading to Thursday’s arraignment.
EFCC had on 30 December 2025, charged Mr Adamu and three civil servants in the state with terrorism financing and money laundering offences for the funds released to Mr Bodejo and others.
Charges
According to the charge, Mr Bodejo allegedly accepted several cash payments from former Bauchi State Accountant General Sa’idu Abubakar between January 2022 and March 2024 without routing the transactions through a financial institution as required by law.
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In the first count, the EFCC alleged that Mr Bodejo, on 11 January 2022, received $100,000 in cash from the former Bauchi State Accountant General, Sa’idu Abubakar, without lawful authority and without routing the transaction through a financial institution as required by law.
The second count alleged that he accepted another $200,000 in cash from Mr Abubakar on 21 January 2022 under similar circumstances.
In the third count, the commission accused him of receiving a further $100,000 in cash from the former accountant general on 26 October 2022.
The fourth count alleged that Mr Bodejo accepted $980,000 in cash from Mr Abubakar on 7 February 2024.
The fifth count accused him of receiving another $750,000 in cash on 3 March 2024.
In the sixth count, the EFCC alleged that Mr Bodejo accepted $500,000 in cash from Mr Abubakar on 20 March 2024.
According to the charge, each of the transactions exceeded the statutory cash transaction threshold prescribed under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, because the payments were allegedly made outside the banking system without being routed through a financial institution as required by law.
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