The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja ordered on Tuesday the remand of former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, accused of N110 billion fraud, in the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja.
The judge, Maryanne Anenih, issued the remand order after rejecting Mr Bello’s bail application on Tuesday.
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The ruling effectively transfers Mr Bello’s custody from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja, where the court temporarily remanded him for two weeks to await its ruling on his bail application, to the Kuje correctional centre.
Ms Anenih denied Mr Bello’s bail application on the grounds that it was premature and incompetent.
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She held in her ruling that the bail application was incompetent having been filed as of when Mr Bello was neither in custody nor before the court.
While Mr Bello’s bail application was filed on 22 November, he was only arrested by the EFCC on 26 November and arraigned before the court on 27 November.
“Consequently, the instant application having been filed prematurely is hereby refused,” she ruled.
However, in two other rulings, the court granted bail to Mr Bello’s co-defendants – Umar Oricha and Abdulsalam Hudu.
The court granted the two men bail in the sum of N300 million each with two sureties in like sum.
The judge ordered that the sureties must have property worth the said amount within the court’s jurisdiction.
She then adjourned till 29 January 2025 for commencement of trial. She also fixed 25 and 27 February 2025 for continuation of trial.
What happens next?
Mr Bello is free to file a fresh bail application. But he races against time as the court prepares to go on Christmas vacation next week.
There are slim chances that his lawyers will be able to file a fresh bail application and have the court hear and deliver ruling on it before the court’s approaching Christmas vacation.
He also has another opportunity to approach a designated vacation judge of the court that would conduct hearings during the festivity period. But he would have to demonstrate the existence of extraordinary and emergency situations to warrant the listing of his bail application for hearing during the period.
If he fails to explore any of these windows, Mr Bello would have to spend the entire Christmas and New Year festivity period and, in fact, the whole of 50 nights before the next hearing date in January in prison.
Mr Bello and two co-defendants face16 counts of diverting N110 billion from the treasury of Kogi State, where he stepped down in January after serving as governor for eight years.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that EFCC arrested Mr Bello on 26 November after months of his evading court summonses.
The EFCC arraigned him and his co-defendants before the FCT High Court in Abuja on 27 November, when the trio pleaded not guilty. The court subsequently heard the defendants’ bail applications which the prosecting lawyer, Kemi Pinheiro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, opposed.
Apart from the N110 billion corruption trial, Mr Bello faces another pending case involving N80 billion in alleged money laundering at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
