The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed that the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, withdrew $720,000 from the state government account to pay his child’s school fee in advance.
The EFCC said Bello transferred $720,000 from the government’s coffers to a Bureau de Change before leaving office.
The chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
Olukoyede said the former governor transferred the money from the state government coffers in anticipation that he was about to leave office.
The EFCC boss said: “A sitting governor, because he knows he is going, moved money directly from the government to Bureau de Change and used it to pay the child’s school fee in advance.
“He moved over $720,000 in advance, in anticipation that he was going to leave the Government House.
“In a poor state like Kogi, and you want me to close my eyes to that under the guise of ‘I’m being used.’ Being used by who at this stage of my life?”
Yahaya Bello to EFCC: Stop harassing me, respect law
Olukoyede added that he inherited the case file of Bello, saying he did not initiate the investigation against the former governor.
The EFCC chairman disclosed that he reached out to Bello, offering him a chance to clarify the situation in a respectful setting within the anti-graft agency office but the ex-governor reportedly declined to cooperate, citing fears of harassment from an unnamed woman.
Olukoyede said: “On my own, I called him, which I am not supposed to do, just to honour him as an immediate past governor. ‘Sir, there are issues. I’ve seen this case file. Can you just come let us clarify these issues?’
“He said, ‘Ha! Thank you, my brother. I know, but I can’t come. There’s one lady that has surrounded EFCC with over 100 people to come and embarrass me and intimidate me’.”
He added that Bello suggested that the EFCC come to his village rather than conduct an investigation at the agency’s office in Abuja.
Olukoyede said: “I said if that is the issue, I am going to pass you through my own gate, and you will come to my floor. We will accord you that respect. I will invite my operatives; they will interrogate and interview you in my own office. What could be more honourable than that to allay the fear?
“You know what he said: ‘Thank you, sir, but can’t they come to my village?’”
The Star recalls that EFCC operatives, on April 17, mounted surveillance around Bello’s house in Abuja to arrest and prosecute Bello for alleged N80.2 billion money laundering.
He was however whisked away from his residence by his successor, Governor Usman Ododo.
The anti-graft agency later arraigned the former governor in absentia before the court.
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