Yahaya Bello once again ignores court summons regarding alleged N82 billion fraud charges. Find out the latest updates on this case.
Yahaya Adoza Bello, the ex-governor of Kogi State, failed to attend court on Wednesday in response to a summons relating to N82 billion fraud allegations made by the federal government. The hearing took place at the Federal High Court located in Abuja.
Justice Emeka Nwite was supposed to arraign Bello this morning. However, as of the time of writing this report, there is no evidence indicating that he has arrived or can be found in either the courtroom or court premises.
Mohammed Aliyu and Adeola Adedipe, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) who represent him have dutifully complied with the court’s order by showing up in court.
The former governor is scheduled for arraignment, and the two senior lawyers are anticipated to respond to inquiries about their promise of delivering him into court.
Despite being summoned to court six times, Bello repeatedly refused and at the most recent adjournment requested that his trial for an alleged crime be moved to Lokoja – which is located in Kogi State’s capital.
According to him, he would rather be arraigned in Lokoja since the court there supposedly holds territorial jurisdiction and also because that is where the supposed offense was committed.
Despite his request being routed through a letter to the Chief Judge of the court, Justice John Tsoho, it was rejected. Instead, he was instructed to make the same request in open court as mandated by law.
At the same time, officials from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have raided the court to observe today’s events.
Mr. Dele Oyewale, the Head of EFCC’s media department, is leading a team from the same unit present in court.
