The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) posted a cartoon on its website on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. It shows a white lion with a human face and a white cap to match. Standing menacingly in front of the lion is an imposing eagle. The lion says, “Consider my health request: low potassium and mild hypertension which is paramount, and grant me permission to travel abroad.” The eagle replies, “The health concern mentioned is what banana and pawpaw will handle. This is not sufficient reason to fly to the UK. You can also visit the ultra-modern hospital you built in Kogi during your tenure.”
This is an indirect jab at the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, also known as the white lion. I am not particularly a fan of Bello. But in his case with the EFCC in different courts in Abuja, the anti-graft agency has, wittingly or unwittingly, scored an own goal.
Bello’s counsel, Joseph Daudu (SAN), had informed the court, on June 27, 2025, about his client’s application for the release of his travel documents to enable him to travel to the United Kingdom for medical care. The prosecution objected to this application, saying it was technically incompetent. The court will rule on this application on July 21. But rather than wait for the court ruling, the anti-graft agency went to town with this cartoon. This was clearly in bad taste.
Also worrisome were the falsehood the commission has been dishing out on its website. Ali Bello, who is former Governor Bello’s nephew and Chief of Staff to incumbent Governor Ahmed Ododo, is also standing trial for N10 billion fraud at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The EFCC had filed the charges against him and Dauda Sulaiman in 2022. His lawyer, Abubakar Aliyu (SAN) had accused the EFCC of publishing untrue accounts of the developments in the previous proceedings on its website.
Last April, Justice James Omotosho threatened to withdraw and return the trial to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment to another judge if the alleged misrepresentation of proceedings by the EFCC continued. Omotosho, who described it as mob justice, said writing fictitious stories about court proceedings could affect the integrity of the court and make the public to lose confidence in it.
Former governor Bello also contends with some misrepresentation in his own N80.2 billion fraud trial. Last Friday, an EFCC witness and Compliance Officer with Zenith Bank, Mshelia Arhyel Bata, refuted the commission’s allegations that the security aides to Bello thoroughly harassed and intimidated him on account of his testimony in court. He told Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, that nothing of such happened before, during and after the proceedings of June 26, 2025. The witness also confirmed that Bello was neither a signatory to nor connected with any of the accounts presented as evidence. The signatories are said to be the Permanent Secretary, Chief Accountant and Accountant. He also said Bello was not listed on any of the documents as a beneficiary of any of the transactions.
Another EFCC witness, Mr. Nicholas Ojehomon, an internal auditor with American International School, Abuja (AISA) had stated last May that there was no wired transfer of fees from the Kogi State Government or any local government’s account in the state to the account of the AISA as alleged.
The EFCC requested to cross-examine this third witness. But Justice Nwite rejected the request, saying no provision in law permitted the court to allow the prosecution to re-examine its witness in the manner the commission proposed. He agreed with the counsel to the defendant that the prosecution could only cross-examine its witness after it had declared such witness a hostile one.
Curiously, the EFCC’s Counsel, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN) tagged the charge against Bello a political case. He said it was the trial of a former governor and “one who had even aspired to contest for presidency.” Jokingly, Justice Nwite said “if that is the case, then those handling political cases should prepare to take over the matter.”
I had made this observation in two previous interventions on this page titled, ‘EFCC’s searchlight on Bello, Obiano and naira abusers’, published on April 22, 2024, and ‘Corruption and Yahaya Bello’s cross’, published on December 16, 2024. In those articles, I noted that Bello lost favour with the powers that be immediately he indicated interest to run for the presidential primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in June 2022.
Even when the northern governors had declared support for the emergence of a President of southern extraction, Bello was adamant and warned that he would have none of that. He had picked up a form to contest for the presidency and had warned the National Working Committee of the APC and the northern governors that excluding him from the presidential primary election would create crisis for the party. The former governor was also said to have stepped on some powerful toes when he dislodged some interests in Kogi to become governor and has continued to dictate the trend of politics in the state.
In my April 22, 2024 piece, I stated that “I look forward to the day when the EFCC will not just arraign one or two ex-governors but all of them who embezzled their states’ security votes while in office.” Until then, I noted, Bello appeared to be a fall guy.
The EFCC had arraigned Bello in absentia on April 18, 2024. The anti-graft body later declared him wanted, just as the police withdrew his security details. The Immigration placed him on watchlist. To show that they were serious with prosecuting Bello, EFCC operatives staged different public shows in attempts to arrest him. They stormed his residence in Abuja in April 2024 but could not get him. They staged a night invasion of the Kogi Government Lodge in Abuja in September 2024 for the same purpose. They also failed to nab the man who had reportedly made himself available in EFCC’s office earlier in the day and was asked to go and return at a later date.
In these attempts to arrest Bello then, the EFCC did not bother to vacate an order of a Kogi State High Court in February 2024 that it should not harass, arrest, detain or prosecute him pending the determination of the suit he filed in court. The EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, had vowed to resign if the former governor was not prosecuted.
Perhaps, this explains his double-barreled prosecution in different courts. Apart from the N80.2 billion trial, Bello is also standing trial, along with two others, for alleged N110 billion money laundering charge which the EFCC brought against him at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court. The charges are virtually the same with the same witnesses going to different courts to say the same thing. Very funny!
The questions remain, why is the EFCC showing, to all intents and purposes, that it has a bone to pick with Bello? Why give certain narratives that make it look like the commission is dancing to the drumbeats of some unknown drummers in the bush? Why not follow its case to a logical conclusion without undue interjections that may expose it as striving to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it?
There are many other high-profile corruption cases which appear stuck in limbo. The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) had identified 14 former governors allegedly involved in N21 trillion fraud in 15 years. Some of these former governors are now either senators or ministers and nobody has raised any eyebrow.
It is still surprising why the EFCC failed to prosecute former Governor of Kano State and immediate past Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje. This is despite the petition of a coalition of 51 anti-corruption groups under the auspices of the National Anti-Corruption Alliance (NACA) to the anti-graft body in 2024. The group demanded the arrest and prosecution of the former governor over numerous allegations of bribery and misappropriation of money.
Ganduje and some others are in the good books of the ruling party. No harm may come their way if they continue to be loyal party members. You see why we should sympathize with former Governor of Delta State and vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Ifeanyi Okowa, and some other politically-exposed persons for recently dumping the PDP for the APC? What is sauce for a Bello should be sauce for a Ganduje.
Anything short of this will amount to standing the rule of law on its head. The EFCC should be mindful of this fact!
Re: Nigeria’s jaundiced electoral, judicial systems
Casmir, any country which has large per cent of strong individuals but weak institutions such as: the National Assembly, the judiciary and the electoral body, is bound to have her elections compromised, and ultimately, her democracy in trouble – as we have in Nigeria. It is only a ‘unique’ incumbent president that will bail the cat, vis-a-vis carrying out electoral reforms.
It is the one with the predisposition or attitude of: if I win, I win and if I lose, I lose. Neither will a judiciary whose finances/purse are directly linked to the executive be able to deliver judgements without fear or favour if the interest of Mr. President is at stake! The era when we had men who delivered judgements with the fear of God seems to be over. Those were the days when ‘men were men’. But what do we have now?
Compromised judges who have neither liver/gut, integrity nor moral conscience. Pitiable poor souls! God is waiting for them in heaven! They will receive canes for the poor judgements they delivered while on earth.
The ones who delivered the most bizarre judgements shall be sent to the hottest part of hell! They know themselves and Nigerians know them. The court of God is waiting for them.
The incumbent president should not appoint INEC Chairmen. When they do, these chairmen naturally and automatically become subservient to the president.
Kudos to this page. Pharmacist interns at NAFDAC, Lagos, have been paid. The director general has directed well. Also, Ladipo Rd, Mushin is now wearing a new look. But the Federal-Agege Motor Rd end needs total repairs. Enough of palliative works.
– Mike, Mushin, Lagos, 0816 111 4572