EFCC urged to follow due process in Yahaya Bello’s prosecution

The Anti-Corruption and Research-Based Data Initiative (ARDI) has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to follow due process in the prosecution of a former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.

The EFCC had said Bello was invited for an interrogation on January 27 this year over alleged embezzlement of N80.2 billion, during his reign as governor of Kogi State, but shunned the invitation.

The EFCC later declared him a fugitive after the attempt to arrest him in his Abuja residence failed.

Following this, the former governor had secured a High Court order restraining the EFCC from arresting him. On Tuesday, he denied being officially invited by the EFCC, saying the allegations were blatant.

• Nigeria Air: How EFCC nabbed Sirika over N8bn ‘fraud’
• Bandits kill 3, abduct 8 others in Kaduna communities

But addressing newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, the Publicity Director of the Anti-Corruption and Research-Based Initiative (ARDI), Mr Nwabueze Anyanwu, said there was the need for both parties to work within the ambit of the laws.

He said, “The sundry allegations of embezzlement of a whopping sum of N80.2bn by EFCC against Alhaji Yahaya Bello is poorly presented and appears to be politically motivated.

“The attempt by officers of the EFCC to arrest Alhaji Yahaya Bello is in flagrant disregard of a subsisting court order that comprehensively bars her from doing so based on a determination that their actions in the entire circumstances of the case amount to actual and threatened breach of all of his fundamental human rights.

“The EFCC is currently at the Appeal Court to challenge that subsisting order of the High Court of Kogi State and the Appellate Court has insisted that parties should maintain the status quo pending determination of the appeal.”