Former Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State is trending these days the way crossdresser Bobrisky trended on social media for mutilating the naira because there were no serious matters to discuss.
One is joining the fray because some friends in the church turned it into a matter for discourse last Sunday. Not even a protest that the matter was probably inconsequential persuaded them to leave the matter. They wanted to know what their columnist friend thought.
The law, by all ramifications, is truly an ass. Indeed, practically the entire Nigerian legal structure is acting in a manner that suggests that a whole bunch of professionals are acting as if they do not know how to conduct their business.
Things that should have been handled more seriously are looking like a bizarre comedy of errors and everyone and every agency involved is beginning to look like a clown that shouldn’t be taken seriously.
A friend, now late, once said that when she worked as a junior state counsel with the Ministry of Justice she observed her seniors deliberately bungling cases after they had been compromised by counsel for the other party.
In an effort to cage Bello, practically the entire Nigeria legal system (the police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the judiciary) is making a laughing stock of itself.
And the media is feasting on it all, casting headlines and twisting stories to fit the narratives of the piper that may be calling the tunes for them. It’s all drama that Nigerians have seen over and over.
The police are now torn between administering orderly room procedures against the officers it officially assigned to Bello and aiding the EFCC to arrest him on allegations of corrupt enrichment from the coffers of Kogi State.
After his men bungled an attempted arrest of Yahaya Bello, rumoured to have been foiled by Governor Ododo of Kogi State, the EFCC Chairman is whining publicly about phone calls he made to Bello to turn himself in.
In an embarrassing dance of shame, two courts, one in Kogi State and the other in the Federal Capital Territory, are giving conflicting orders on whether Bello should be arrested and prosecuted or not.
While the Kogi State court issued an interim restraining order asking the EFCC not to arrest Bello, the Abuja court issued a warrant of arrest to the EFCC. The Abuja court is probably hiding behind the one finger that says the court must always discountenance whatever is published by the press.
The following are the material particulars of the thread woven around Bello by a legal system that appears to be compromised or, at least, incompetent, or even unwilling to perform its duties to the advantage of justice for Bello and for society.
The EFCC is seeking to prosecute Bello on the grounds of an alleged money laundering charge, breach of (public) trust(?) and misappropriation of (public?) funds in the neighbourhood of N80.2bn.
In response to allegations by the EFCC Chairman, Olanipekun Olukoyede, that Bello withdrew money from Kogi State government coffers to pay the school fees of his children at American International School, Abuja, Bello claimed he “did not pay the sum of $720,000, or $840,000 as it is being bandied about.”
Again, in response to the claim by the EFCC that it received $760,000 from AISA, Bello argued that “AISA could not have unilaterally refunded to a third party, including the EFCC, fees paid by third parties to the government.”
But contrary to Bello’s deposition, AISA confirmed receipt of a total of $845,852.84 in tuition and other fees (from Bello?), and claimed to “have calculated the net amount to be transferred and refunded to the state (through the EFCC?), after deducting for the educational services rendered (to Bello’s children?) as $760,910.84.”
There are a few grey areas in these claims and counterclaims, and it would require an unbiased judiciary to unravel the facts from the “truths” from Bello, the EFCC, AISA and stakeholders that have decided to own and interpret the narratives to suit their purposes.
In view of these grave allegations, maybe Bello should take the advice of President Bola Tinubu’s Media Support Group and Lateef Fagbemi, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and turn himself in to the EFCC. But he must be accompanied by his lawyers.
Such an action would be a bold and open step of a man willing to clear his name of any smear. His immunity expired the day his tenure as governor ended. If he has not committed any offence he will be a free man indeed.
Is there a link between the N80.2bn that the EFCC is trying to prosecute Bello for and the $760,910.84 that AISA said it paid to the EFCC, the $845,852.84 AISA claimed to have received (from GYB?), or even $720,000 or $840,000 that GYB said he never paid to AISA?
Well, the police have a rule of thumb for investigations. They call it, “every, every, any, any,” which enables them to take in any evidence, even if it appears irrelevant, and arrest anyone in sight (whether remotely or directly involved with the matter).
