Yahaya Bello, the former governor of Kogi State, was scheduled to be arraigned on June 13, but the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, withdrew its previous request on Thursday without providing the defendant’s attorneys prior notice.
At the request of the anti-graft agency’s attorneys, a new hearing date, June 27, was reportedly set for the EFCC’s alleged money laundering case against Bello.
Adeola Adedipe, SAN, Bello’s attorney, informed the court during the hearing that was rescheduled for Thursday that the EFCC lawyers had contacted Aliyu AbdulWahab, SAN, the defendant’s attorney, to inform him that the June 13 date would not work for them to proceed and that Wahab would need to consent to a new date being set out of convenience.
He claimed to have been taken aback to learn that Rotimi Oyedepo, an attorney with the EFCC, was in court.
Junior counsel will be sent to court today to formally select a date, as agreed upon by the EFCC. Adedipe stated, “And the registry can verify this.”
He continued, “Kemi Pinhero, SAN, has been calling us to say that today is not convenient.” The principal attorney is Kemi Pinhero.
Bello was expected to appear in court on Thursday, but the EFCC decided to request an adjournment to a later date for his arraignment.
This is one of the situations where defendants are exempt from appearing under 266 ACJA.
“To choose a date, we arrived here. What purpose will the defendant serve by appearing here? We did not approach the prosecution attorney; they approached us. We have nothing to conceal,” said Adedipe.
In the interim, the court has rescheduled the arraignment for June 27.
