The Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed on Wednesday that Yahaya Bello, the former governor of Kogi State, had compromised the Nigerian legal system by neglecting to show up for his trial despite being charged with N80.2 billion fraud.
Effa Okim, the acting zonal director of the EFCC for the Benin Zonal Command, stated this while on a familiarisation visit to the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ Delta State Council in Asaba, the capital of Delta State.
Regarding the purported N80.2 billion fraud, Bello and the EFCC are still in court. Following an unsuccessful attempt at his arrest and his persistent nonattendance at court for his arraignment, Bello was proclaimed wanted by the EFCC and added to a watchlist by the Nigerian Immigration Service.
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“This is the last question I expected because the shame is on all of us. Is that a question I should answer alone? It’s not me, it is the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the EFCC zonal director said.
“That politically-exposed Yahaya Bello, whose crime has been traced to him by allegation and has been invited by EFCC to come and explain, and for months he is acting drama and we are all here wanting to ask questions! The shame is our own shame!
“Can’t we catch him? We can, but do we go all out to catch him? Do we need to do that when he has his masters? Can’t they call him and tell him, ‘You are disgracing Nigeria’? What are you telling the world? Tell him to go and explain himself like others have done.
“Where are the ministers? Where are Yahaya Bello’s colleagues, even in his hiding? So, Nigerians can’t tell him ‘This is not fair, go and report; they are not going to kill you’? But people are still eating and dining with him.”
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Okim said beyond legality, there was a moral aspect of the case.
“Where has morality gone before legality that we can’t summon that man and tell him to go and report himself to the EFCC? Some persons are writing, supporting him, while some are criticizing the commission.
“The problem is our own problem that borders on Nigeria’s image. Our children are watching their parents behave like children.
“To me, the truth has vanished. Even in Animal Farm, this will not happen, that a man who was part of the system that was a custodian of our culture, rules and laws can behave like this and you are asking questions.
“The media should come out for the first time to harmonise, criticise that action and forget about prosecution but tell him to make himself available; thereafter we know what to do.”
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Bello’s conduct, according to Okim, had made fun of the criminal justice system. “And because we respect the law, we want to go by the process, we are inhibited that does not make us weak,” Okim said.
The panel has the support of the state’s journalists, according to Churchill Oyowe, Chairman of the NUJ Delta State Council.
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