₦110.4bn Alleged Fraud: EFCC Presents New Financial Evidence Against Ex-Kogi Gov Bello

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday tendered additional bank records as evidence in the ongoing trial of Yahaya Bello, former Kogi State Governor, over alleged financial crimes amounting to N110.4 billion.

The trial, which resumed before Maryanne Anineh, Justice of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Maitama, Abuja, saw the anti-graft agency lead compliance officers from multiple commercial banks to detail large inflows and withdrawals linked to government accounts, security votes and private companies allegedly connected to the case.

Bello is standing trial alongside Umar Shuaibu Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu on a 16-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust and money laundering.

At Thursday’s proceedings, prosecution counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, told the court that the matter was slated for the continuation of cross-examination of Prosecution Witness Six (PW6), Mashelia Arhyel Bata, a compliance officer with Zenith Bank.

Under cross-examination by counsel to the first and second defendants, J.B. Daudu, the witness explained the structure of the Zenith Bank statement of account admitted as Exhibit S1, noting that the “description” column reflected the nature of each transaction.

He drew the court’s attention to an entry dated January 20, 2016, showing a cheque payment of N10 million to Abdulsalami Hudu, as well as another cheque payment of N2.45 million to Halims Hotels and Tours, Lokoja.

However, the witness said he could not determine the purpose for which the funds were utilised.

Daudu also questioned the witness on Exhibit X1, identified as the account opening documents of a company domiciled at Zenith Bank’s Lokoja branch.

When directed to entries on December 6, 2016, the witness confirmed a credit of N74.38 million from the Kogi State Internal Revenue Service, followed by a N10 million cheque payment to Mohammed Jami’u Sallau.

According to him, the narration on the statement did not disclose the purpose of the payment, adding that he could not infer how the funds were eventually spent.