EFCC Chairman Vows to Step Down if Yahaya Bello Isn’t Prosecuted

The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has said that he will resign if former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted. 

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, April 23, at the EFCC headquarters located in Jabi, Abuja, the anti-graft agency chairman vowed that all those who obstructed the arrest of the former governor would be brought to justice.

The EFCC, on April 18, declared Bello wanted over an alleged N80 billion financial crime. Bello has yet to appear in court for scheduled arraignments since he was declared wanted.

EFCC Chairman, Olukoyede, said he made a direct phone call to Bello out of respect, urging him to appear before the commission and address the charges against him. However, he said the former governor declined the invitation. 

Bello had denied that he was invited, daring the anti-graft agency to produce a copy of the invitation letter. 

In a statement through his media office on Tuesday, Bello accused the commission of spreading lies. 

The EFCC chairman said: “If I do not personally oversee the completion of the investigation regarding Yahaya Bello, I will tender my resignation as the chairman of the EFCC.

“I have arraigned two past governors who have been granted bail now – Willie Obiano and Abdulfatah Ahmed. We would have gone after Bello in January but we waited for the court order.

“If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and Chief Olu Agunloye, my kinsman, why not Yahaya Bello?”

Olukoyede also said the former governor transferred $720,000 from the government’s coffers to a bureau de change before leaving office to pay in advance for his child’s school fee.

“A sitting governor, because he knows he is going, moved money directly from government to bureau de change, used it to pay the child’s school fee in advance, $720,000 in advance, in anticipation that he was going to leave the Government House.

“In a poor state like Kogi, and you want me to close my eyes to that under the guise of ‘I’m being used. Being used by who at this stage of my life?” the EFCC chairman said.