The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday, urged the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja to reject former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello’s request to travel to the United Kingdom on medical grounds.
But Mr Bello maintained, through his lawyer, that his foreign trip application was in order and followed the court’s directive in its earlier ruling granting him bail.
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Trial judge Maryanne Anenih fixed 17 July for her ruling on the application.
The EFCC is prosecuting Mr Bello alongside two co-defendants on charges of diverting N110 billion belonging to Kogi State while he was governor. The prosecution accused him of using the allegedly stolen funds to buy personal properties in Abuja and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
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As part of the bail conditions given by the court to Mr Bello after his arraignment last year, the trial judge ordered the seizure of his passport and 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 is pending.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, where Mr Bello faces a separate prosecution on N80.2 billion money laundering charges, also issued similar orders in its ruling granting the former governor bail last year.
On 25 June, PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Bello sought the permission of the court to travel to the United Kingdom on health grounds. He filed a 22-paragraph affidavit and canvassed 13 grounds in his application filed on 20 June. He also attached a medical report and a letter from a physician, Amanda Banada, to support the application.
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EFCC responded by filing a counter-affidavit in opposition to the application, prompting Mr Bello to file another affidavit on 7 July.
EFCC’s objection
At Tuesday’s hearing at the FCT High Court, EFCC’s lawyer, Chukwudi Enebeli, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), described the request as an abuse of court process, adding that granting it would only amount to encouraging medical tourism.
Mr Enebeli also faulted the application on the grounds of its failure to disclose the identity of the physician Mr Bello is meant to see in the UK.
He also maintained that Mr Bello himself remained a flight risk, suggesting that the defendant may not return to face his trial if granted the foreign trip permission.
The prosecution lawyer also pointed out that Mr Bello has a similar application pending before the Federal High Court, where he faces a separate N80.2 billion money laundering case. He added that the Federal High Court ruling seizing Mr Bello’s passport and barring him from travelling abroad predated the similar order issued by the FCT High Court.
“The first defendant (Mr Bello) has filed another application word for word, aside the suit number, at the Federal High Court. And the case has been adjourned for ruling. This application ought to wait or be suspended,” Mr Enebeli said, as he urged the court to deny Mr Bello’s request to embark on the foreign trip.
He also told the judge, Ms Anenih, that an approval of Mr Bello’s application for permission for temporary release of his passport could “send this court on a collision course with the other court”. According to him, “if the Federal High Court refuses and this court grants the permission, it will make a mockery of the judicial process.”
Mr Enebeli also said Mr Bello’s sureties, who guaranteed his bail, were not put on notice regarding the foreign trip application.
Prosecution teases Bello on Kogi ultra-modern hospital claim
Mr Enebeli also taunted Mr Bello over his claim of building an ultra-modern hospital in Kogi State while he was governor. The prosecution lawyer noted that the hospital was described “on the official website of Kogi State Government as the best hospital in Nigeria, established to cut medical tourism.”
“The time has come for your Lordship to cut medical tourism and direct him to use the hospital,” Mr Enebeli said.
He also stated that the medical report issued to by Mr Bello from the Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, Kogi State, was signed by one “Dr. Oyelere Usman” for an unnamed consultant.
Mr Enebeli noted that this was insufficient evidence for the court to aid the court’s decision.
He concluded his submission describing Mr Bello’s application for foreign trip as undeserving and unmeritorious and calling on the judge to dismiss it.
‘Why Bello’s foreign trip application should be granted’
Mr Bello’s lead defence lawyer, Jospeh Daudu, a SAN, urged the court not to reckon with EFCC’s submission against the application.
He argued that the bail conditions granted his client in December 2024 did not prevent him from travelling abroad but prescribed that he sought permission should have any reason to embark on such a trip. “The bail carries inference that he still enjoys his freedom of movement.”
He noted that the applicant was merely complying with the court order by seeking permission to travel, and that such could not have amounted to an abuse of court process.
Mr Daudu, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), who denied the prosecution’s suggestion that Mr Bello’s sureties were not aware of the application, said the decision to grant the request or not is at the discretion of the court.
Assuring the court that Mr Bello would return from the planned medical trip to face his trial if his request is granted, Mr Daudu argued that the former governor had exhibited a willingness to clear his name by presenting himself for every court session. He said the defendfant has not breached the order of the court. Therefore, he said, contrary to EFCC’s claim, Mr Bello is not a flight risk.
However, EFCC’s lawyer, Mr Enebeli disputed referring to Mr Bello’s antecedents before his arrest. He said, “It is therefore sufficient basis to refuse the application, he may do more or worse.”
Background
The EFCC charged Mr Bello alongside two co-defendants – Umar Shuaibu Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu –– accusing them of diverting the funds from the state’s treasury in 2016.
In the 16 counts preferred against the defendants, the EFCC alleged that Mr Bello, and his co-defendants diverted N110 billion belonging to Kogi State.
The charges include criminal breach of trust involving the alleged diversion of more than N110 billion entrusted in Mr Bello’s care as Kogi State governor. Mr Bello was governor from January 2016 to January 2024.
Mr Bello and his co-defendants denied the charges at their arraignment on 27 November 2024. As of June, the EFCC has called four prosecution witnesses so far in the ongoing trial.
Similarly, Mr Bello has denied the charges filed against him at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
EFCC’s protracted pursuit of Bello
Bringing Mr Bello to court for trial proved difficult, with the drive to prosecute him leading to confrontations, including a shooting spree.
On 17 April, the anti-graft agency laid a siege to his house in Abuja to arrest him based on a warrant it obtained from the trial court the previous day. After about seven hours of stand-off between EFCC operatives and police officers on guard at the house, Mr Bello slipped away in the convoy of his successor, Governor Ododo, who suddenly emerged on the scene.
On the same day, the Kogi State High Court restrained EFCC from arresting, detaining and prosecuting him. However, the commission brushed aside the court order, insisting its action was based on the legitimate order of a court with coordinate jurisdiction.
A day after the failed attempt to arrest the former governor, EFCC declared him wanted following his failure to appear in court and later threatened to use the military to bring him to court.
Mr Bello repeatedly snubbed court sessions seven times, accusing the EFCC of trying to arrest him forcefully and illegally.
The stalemate stretched on for months, while a series of legal proceedings initiated by Mr Bello to thwart the trial unfolded at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the Kogi State High Court and the Court of Appeal.
In August, the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordered him to submit himself to the EFCC and the Federal High Court for arraignment, ending his hopes of getting a legal reprieve from prosecution.
Then on 18 September, Mr Bello suddenly appeared in company with Governor Ododo on the premises of EFCC headquarters in Abuja, purportedly to surrender to the commission.
READ ALSO: EFCC arraigns Gombe court bailiff over alleged N9.8 million auction fraud
Curiously, EFCC refused to arrest Mr Bello, allowing him to strut around its compound for more than an hour. The agency’s operatives rather opted, by night that day, to apprehend him at the Kogi State Government Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja, where he was being sheltered by the state government.
A confrontation ensued at the lodge, with EFCC operatives and security guards attached to the place engaging in a shootout. During the milieu, Mr Bello again slipped away in Governor Ododo’s convoy.
On 26 November, Mr Bello finally surrendered to EFCC ahead of the following day’s proceedings of the FCT High Court in Abuja scheduled for his arraignment.
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