Yahaya Bello's Trial: How N1bn moved from Kogi govt.'s bank account in days

A bank official, on Thursday, detailed a pattern of massive suspicious cash withdrawals and transfers from the Kogi State Government’s account which allegedly took place during former Governor Yahaya Bello’s time in office.

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Mshelia Arhyel, a compliance officer at a Zenith Bank branch in Maitama, Abuja, told the Federal High Court in Abuja, where Mr Bello is facing trial, that over N1 billion was taken from the government’s account within a few days during the period.

The fourth prosecution witness provided the details of the controversial transactions from bank documents admitted by trial judge Emeka Nwite as Exhibits 22 and 22A on Thursday.

The exhibits included a certificate of identification, account opening documents, and the statement of account for the Kogi State Government.

Exhibit 22A, which covers pages 24 to 413, details financial transactions on the government’s bank account.

Mr Bello, who served as Governor of Kogi State from January 2016 to January 2024, is facing trial before the court on 19 counts of money laundering involving alleged diversion of N80.2 billion from the Kogi State Government’s accounts.

EFCC, which is prosecuting Mr Bello in a separate corruption case before another court, alleged that the funds were proceeds of unlawful activities of Mr Bello while he was serving as the governor of the North-central state.

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It alleged that Mr Bello’s children’s school fees and some houses in choice areas of Abuja linked to the former governor were paid for with funds diverted from the Kogi State Government’s coffers.

Over N1 billion transfers, withdrawals for private accounts in days

Led in evidence at Thursday’s proceedings by the prosecution lawyer, Kemi Pinheiro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Arhyel walked the court through the statement of account of the Kogi State Government.

On page 34 of the document, the bank official identified an entry dated 16 April 2016 indicating N4.55 million was transferred to Danihopewell Services Limited. No credit entry was recorded for that transaction, the witness said.

He also pointed out several cheque transactions on 23 May 2016 appearing on page 39 of the document. He gave the name of the beneficiary of the transaction as Abdulsalami Hudu, a name that features as Mr Bello’s co-defendant in a separate N110 billion corruption trial before another judge of the FCT High Court in Abuja.

One of the entries reflected a N10 million cash withdrawal, the maximum allowed per cheque. There were eight other similar cash withdrawals on the same day, by the same person, to the same account, the witness said.

On 5 May 2016 (page 37), Mr Arhyel confirmed 12 cash withdrawals in Mr Hudu’s favour, each within the N10 million limit. On 6, 8, and 9 May, similar N10 million transactions were recorded.

Pages 38 and 39 revealed consistent patterns of cash withdrawals by Mr Hudu.

On 30 January 2018 (pages 160–165), the witness said, the account received 10 credit transactions from the Kogi State Statutory Revenue Account. On the same day, there were 35 cheque cash withdrawals by Mr Hudu, each valued at N10 million. Together, they totalled N350 million, according to the witness.

On 31 January 2018 (pages 165–166), 36 cheque cash withdrawals were recorded in favour of Mr Hudu. Thirty-three cheques were valued at N10 million (N330 million), while the remaining three were N9,872,000, N6,985,000, and N110,000, totaling N17,267,000. The total for that day stood at N347,267,000.

Combined with the previous day, Mr Hudu withdrew N697,267,000 in two days.

The fourth prosecution witness testified further that, on 1 February 2018 (page 166), 30 cheque withdrawals of N10 million each were made, totalling N300 million.

According to him, on 2 February 2018 (page 167), 13 transactions were recorded, five at N10 million each, while the remaining eight ranged between N2.874 million and N8.77 million.

Altogether, withdrawals between 30 and 31 January and 1 and 2 February 2018 amounted to N1,096,830,000.

Bello’s nephew, others also received funds

Also on 1 February 2018, a transfer of over N3 million from the Kogi State Government House was made in favour of Ali Bello, a nephew of former Governor Bello who is also facing corruption charges in two separate cases before two judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Mr Arhyel said that on 2 May 2018 (page 182), 41 cheque withdrawals of N10 million each were recorded, alongside two additional cheques of N8.955 million and N5.54 million.

On 6 May 2022 (page 395), he said, an inflow of N100 million from the Kogi State Statutory Revenue Account was recorded. The same day, Mr Hudu withdrew N100 million in 10 separate cheque transactions.

A similar pattern occurred on 11 May 2022, with another N100 million inflow followed by identical withdrawals by Mr Hudu.

The fourth prosecution witness testified that on 19 May 2022 (pages 395–396), the account received N100 million, which was withdrawn the same day by one Mr Umar. Between pages 395 and 401, the witness confirmed consistent patterns of identical inflows and outflows. The two cash beneficiaries over this period were Mr Hudu and Mr Koji.

The witness was reminded of the CBN’s 5 per cent surcharge for excess cash withdrawals by government and corporate entities. On 7 and 11 September 2023 (pages 405–407), he confirmed that Mr Koji withdrew N5 million and was charged N250,000. A second transaction that day saw another N10 million withdrawal, attracting a N500,000 surcharge.

He said, in total, the 5 per cent surcharge applied to nine other cash withdrawals on the same day, bringing the total surcharges to N4.75 million. The account belonged to the Kogi State Statutory Revenue Account.

The trial judge, Mr Nwite, fixed Friday for the cross-examination of the witness by the defence team, which asked for time to study Exhibit 22A.

Prosecution re-examines third prosecution witness

Before Mr Arhyel entered the witness box on Thursday, the judge granted permission to the prosecution to re-examine its third witness.

The judge partially overruled the defence which objected to the prosecution’s re-examination request. Nigerian courts rarely permit the re-examination of a witness that has been cross-examined by the adverse party.

But Mr Nwite, in granting the request on Thursday, emphasised that since the prosecution made no formal application to introduce a new matter, the court would not permit re-examination beyond the scope of cross-examination.

He acknowledged that the document in question, Exhibit 19, is already in evidence and stressed that the prosecution is only permitted to question the third prosecution witness on pages 1, 14, and 15 of the document addressed during cross-examination.

After the court approved the re-examination request, the third prosecution witness, Nicholas Ojehomon, who is an internal auditor at the American International School, Abuja (AISA), fielded a few questions from the prosecution lawyer and was thereafter discharged.

In his earlier testimony, Mr Ojehomon testified on the over $800,000 paid to the elite school for Mr Bello’s children’s school fees.

MR Ojehomon, who started testifying on 6 March as the third prosecution witness, ended his evidence with the defence team closing his cross-examination on 9 May. On that day, EFCC sought the permission of the court to re-examine him, but the judge adjourned the ruling.

More trials

Alongside the N80.2 billion money laundering trial, Mr Bello faces related charges in a fraud case involving alleged diversion of N110 billion in Kogi State’s funds before the FCT High Court in Abuja.

The EFCC is also prosecuting his nephew, Ali Bello, in separate corruption cases before two judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja. Ali, who was close to the older Mr Bello as governor, is the Chief of Staff to the Mr Bello’s successor, Usman Ododo.