Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s N80.2bn fraud trial to January 29

The Federal High Court in Abuja has postponed the trial of former Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, on a 19-count charge of money laundering filed by the Economic aand Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) until January 29, 2026.

Bello, who served as Kogi State governor from 2016 to 2024, is accused of involvement in the alleged diversion and laundering of N80.2 billion belonging to the state government.

The adjournment came after the seventh prosecution witness, Olomotame Egoro, a compliance officer with Access Bank Plc, completed his testimony and was released by the court.

Counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, had at the resumed hearing on the case, sought to tender through the witness, bank documents that were marked as Exhibits 33 (1- 11) and 34.

The application was opposed by the defence lawyer, Abdullahi Yahaya, SAN, who contended that the exhibit being demonstrated by the prosecution and its witness, was unknown to the defendant.

He noted that a certificate of identification that was attached to the document sought to be tendered, was signed by one Faruk Idiaro, not the witness in the box.

In his response, the prosecution counsel argued that though the certificate was different, the main documents that contained the transaction history, remained the same.

Following a one hour standdown of the case, the witness, upon resumption of the proceeding, confirmed that there were seven columns in the statement of account that was tendered and explained what the different columns stood for.

Led by the prosecution counsel, the witness identified the transactions that occurred in the account statement of the Kogi State Government House Administration, from December 2018 to August 2021.

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