Police Detain Yahaya Bello’s ADC, security details

An aide-de-camp to the troubled former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has been arrested by the Nigeria Police Force. She is a female police officer.

Along with other police officers assigned to 48-year-old Bello, the ADC was taken into custody and is currently being held at the Federal Capital Territory’s State Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja.

Olukayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police, issued an order on Thursday night directing their swift departure from the former governor, which led to their arrest and detention.

Senior law enforcement officials, who spoke to our correspondent under anonymity because they lacked permission to publicly comment on the issue, said that the officers were detained on suspicion of helping Bello elude arrest agents from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who had gone to his residence in Abuja on Wednesday.

“Yahaya Bello’s ADC and other police details have been taken into custody and arrested.

One of the sources told our correspondent over the phone on Friday, “They were arrested on the order of the IG, on the suspicion that they aided and abetted the former governor’s escape from the EFCC on Wednesday.

“Yahaya Bello’s female ADC and other police officers who were with him were brought to the command this morning, and they have been detained for encouraging the governor’s escape, according to a second source.

On Thursday night, Egbetokun had given the order for all of the police officers assigned to Bello to leave.Our correspondent saw a police wireless message on Friday morning that contained the order for the withdrawal.

“The police tasked with protecting His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the former Executive Governor of Kogi State, ought to recognize and value compliance. For your information and strict compliance, please see above.

Also, Bello was added to a watch list by the federal government on Thursday night.The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service disclosed that Bello was put on a watchlist for conspiracy, betrayal of trust, and money laundering in a document that our correspondent was able to obtain exclusively on Thursday night.

The Nigeria Customs Service, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the Department of State Services, and the Director of the National Internet Agency were copied on the document, which was signed by the Assistant Comptroller General.

“I am directed to inform you that the above-named person has been placed on a watch list,” the document stated. It is sufficient to state that, according to a letter dated April 18, 2024, with reference number CR; 3000/EFCC/LS/EGCS.1/TE/V 1/279, the subject is being prosecuted before the Federal High Court Abuja for conspiracy, breach of trust, and money laundering.

“He should be apprehended and reported to the Director of Investigation if spotted at any point of entry or departure. Alternatively, call 08036226329 or 07039617304 for additional assistance.””Please accept the warmest regards and esteem of the Comptroller-General, as always.

“Bello was previously listed as wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for money laundering totaling N80,246,470,088.88.A notice detailing the development was shared on the commission’s official Facebook page on Thursday, along with an image of the troubled former governor.

Notice N80,246,470,089.88 (Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty Six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand and Eighty Nine Naira, Eighty Eight Kobo): Yahaya Adoza Bello, former governor of Kogi State, whose photograph appears above, is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in connection with an alleged case of money laundering.

“Bello, an Ebira man of 48 years old, is a native of Kogi State’s Okenne Local Government. 9, Benghazi Street, Wuse Zone 4, Abuja is his last-known address. If you know anything about his whereabouts that would be helpful, please get in touch with the Commission.Bello was arraigned by the EFCC on Thursday, but he did not show up for his court appearance before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, which is located in Abuja.

Along with three other suspects, Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman, and Abdulsalam Hudu, the troubled former governor was arraigned in absentia before Justice Emeka Nwite on 19 counts related to money laundering.It had earlier reported how the incumbent Governor of Kogi State, Usman Ododo, on Wednesday helped Bello, who is his predecessor, escape arrest by operatives of the EFCC.

At around 2:30 pm on Wednesday, one of our correspondents who was at the ex-governor’s house noticed Ododo’s arrival under tight security.Ododo’s group left in the governor’s vehicle with Bello at precisely 4:20 p.m.

Ten minutes or so after the governor and the former governor departed, the EFCC agents besieging Bello’s residence withdrew from the area.The police, DSS, Counter Terrorism Unit, and other security personnel manning Bello’s home drove off twenty minutes after the EFCC agents left.”Bello’s arraignment is coming on the heels of a warrant of arrest and enrollment order granted the EFCC by the court on Wednesday, April 17, 2024,” stated Dele Oyewale, an EFCC spokesperson, in a statement on Wednesday.

The EFCC also stated that on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, there was strong opposition to the commission’s attempt to carry out an arrest warrant that was legitimately obtained against Bello.He went on, “The current governor of Kogi State, Usman Ododo, broke the security cordon around the former governor’s residence in Abuja and made sure the suspect was driven away in his official vehicle.

In the face of the provocation, the EFCC acted responsibly as a law enforcement organization and refrained, waiting for his arraignment on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Bello must be made aware that he is subject to the law and will be apprehended as soon as feasible.

Yahaya Bello’s media office, meanwhile, charged in a statement released on Thursday that the EFCC was persecuting them and that the agency was filing identical charges in three different courts.”The Media Office of Yahaya Bello has once again been drawn to another chapter in the series of the ongoing persecution of the former Governor by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,” the statement stated in part.

“The masterminds of this never-ending persecution have hastily repackaged their script, this time dragging the name of the EFCC further in the mud, having failed woefully to achieve their motive of national embarrassment with the critical questions that greeted their earlier allegations that the former governor converted over N80bn Kogi State funds to personal use in September 2015, even before he became governor.”

“Some desperate politicians have pushed the EFCC to approach another Federal High Court in Abuja with the same set of dubious allegations in an ill-advised attempt to appease their paymasters at all costs, without waiting for the outcome of the two preceding cases they have filed in two different courts simultaneously.In this instance, they attempted to make up for their original error by claiming that roughly N80 billion had been taken in February 2016, which was possibly less than three weeks after he took office as Kogi State’s governor for the first time on January 27, 2016.

It is now evident from the strange and never-ending sequence of accusations, cross-charges, counter-charges, and baseless accusations that the entire campaign is nothing more than a desperate political witch-hunt against the outgoing governor.

We wish to alert the President to the fact that the EFCC’s misuse of the legal system and prosecutorial authority is taking on a dangerous dimension that the commission’s head may not have even noticed. It is still our desire to believe that he is being tricked into political persecution rather than being vigorously prosecuted by dishonest members of the system who collaborate with lawbreakers disguising themselves as elected officials.

“The desperate attempt to bring down a man who has only raised the standard of government in his state and given everyone the opportunity to see the tangible benefits of democracy, regardless of their religious or ethnic affiliation, has clouded the rational thinking of masterminds and driven them into a consistent pattern of making incredibly baseless and insupportable accusations against their target.”