Alleged Fraud: Court Admits Exhibits Against Ex-Governor Bello As Banks Workers Testify

Justice Emeka Nwite of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has admitted as exhibits, statements of account tendered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the trial of former Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.

The former Kogi State Governor who is being tried before the court over allegation of N80.2billion fraud by the anti-graft agency had pleaded not guilty to the allegations.

The court admitted the document as exhibit after the prosecution witness in the case, Jesutomi Akoni, a Compliance Officer with Ecobank Plc, was examined by EFCC lawyer, Chukwudi Enebeli, SAN, and was asked to identify the document, which he did.

The witness had also tendered a subpoena written to Ecobank, which was admitted in evidence.

EFCC lawyer had sought the permission of the court to tender the statement of account belonging to one Moses Ailetu’s companies with certificate of identification, from January 1 to January 31, 2016.

The defence counsel did not oppose the request and it was admitted as Exhibit 29.

Also, the witness was told to identify the different columns in the statement, which he did.

He was told to confirm cash deposits by the company, which were between N3 million and N20 million, and totalling N57 million.

The fourth prosecution witness, Mshelia Arhyel Bata, a compliance officer with Zenith Bank, told the court in his own evidence that fund withdrawals by the state government did not breach any banking law.

The Defence Counsel, Joseph Daudu, SAN, had drawn the witness’ attention to certain withdrawals by one Umar Comfort Olufunke, which the prosecution did not mention.

The prosecution had concentrated on withdrawals by Abdulsalam Hudu, the Cashier of Kogi State Government House.

According to the witness, the withdrawals, in multiples of N10 million, were between December 2017 and April 2018, with beneficiaries being various hotels in Kogi State.

On cross-examination, the witness also confirmed withdrawals by one Alhassan Omakoji between November 2021 and December 2022, which did not exceed N10 million per withdrawal.

He said the withdrawals were in line with the limits set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and admitted that he was not aware of any law that regulates how Kogi State Government spends its money or allocation.

The witness said apart from the beneficiaries like the hotels, there was no way he could know the purpose of the state’s transactions.

The prosecution counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, thereafter said he had no re-examination for Mshelia and asked for him to be discharged before introducing its sixth witness, on subpoena from Keystone Bank.

A relationship officer with the bank, Mohammed Bello Hassan, was asked to produce the statements of account of Dantata and Sawoe, which was tendered as Exhibit, along with the certificate of identification which the defence counsel did not object.

After this, a seventh witness, Olomotame Egoro, a Compliance Officer, on subpoena from Access Bank, was led in evidence by Pinheiro.

He confirmed to the court that he had the 12 sets of documents that had been requested. “We supplied sufficient customer’s details that were extracted from the account opening packages at the time the customer opened the account,” he said.

Also, the defence counsel did not object to the admission of the account statement proper, but kicked against some extractions.

“I am not going to object to the account proper but I will object to all the 12 purported extractions from the account opening documents attached. But I will not object to the statements of account, which were subpoenaed,” he stated.

“Based on our request, he brought other documents believing that we may be in need. We did not actually request for those documents,” Pinheiro responded.

Daudu prayed the court to tell the prosecution to remove “all the extraneous documents attached” subsequent upon which the prosecution team detached the documents that were regarded as irrelevant.

Justice Emeka Nwite had adjourned the matter to Tuesday November 11, 2025, for continuation of trial.