The recent trial of Governor Yahaya Bello
has been widely condemned, drawing criticism from politcal watchers as to why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would engage in media trial.
Although Sunshinetruth understands that the of the EFCC has elicited mixed reactions with many lampooning the commission for its insensitivity.
Although Bello’s media office, while reacting said, “on Tuesday, 23rd April 2024, Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, in a conduct which we view as unbecoming of a Legal Practitioner, organised a press conference where he alleged (amongst other outrightly defamatory statements) that His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, withdrew cash from the Kogi State Government Account, sent same to Bureau De Change Operators and then used same to pay the school fees of his children in advance.
“According to Olukoyede, the payment was made just about the time the former Governor was to leave office.
“Since the said press conference, receipts of payments of the said fees bearing the names of His Excellency’s Children and those of other family members, who separately paid their fees, have been flying all over the internet.
“While we reserve our rights to seek redress against the said defamatory statements, permit us to briefly state the following for the purpose of setting the records straight:
“His Excellency, Yahaya Bello’s children have attended the American International School, Abuja well before he became Governor and he has paid fees for his children as and when due and without fail.
“His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello did not pay the sum of USD720,000 as alleged by the EFCC Chairman or USD840,000 as is being bandied about on the internet.
“The payment of the fees was not effected at about the time his Excellency was to leave office as claimed by Mr. Olukoyede but same commenced in 2021.
“Alhaji Yahaya Bello DID NOT pay the fees of his Children with monies from the Coffers of the Kogi State Government.
“When the EFCC approached the American International School Abuja (AISA) to illegally recover funds legitimately paid by Alhaji Yahaya Bello and other family members, a member of the family challenged the EFCC’s unlawful acts to recover funds legitimately paid. The FCT High Court, in Suit No. FCT/HC/2574/2023 between: Mr. Ali Bello v. The Incorporated Trustees of American International School, Abuja, held that AISA could not lawfully and unilaterally refund to a third party, including the EFCC, fees paid by the parties to the suit.
“The Court subsequently mandated AISA to continue to provide the services it had been paid with respect to the fees.
Also, Chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress have said that an unbiased assessment of the alleged media trial of the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission goings showcases grounds for strong suspicion of vendetta.
The Stakeholders, who spoke at a press conference in Abuja on Friday said, while the public was being misled into the erroneous impression that the EFCC was trying to fight corruption, “it is actually just a pretense in furtherance of a personal vendetta on behalf of, and, at the behest of persons in government intent on the bastardisation of our institutions of state.”
Lawyer and Head of the Tinubu Media Support Group, Barrister Jesutega Onokpasa, while addressing the press, on behalf of on behalf of Concerned Chieftains, Stalwarts of the APC, stated, “We, concerned Chieftains, Stalwarts and Stakeholders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, find certain pertinent issues emanating from the matter between the former Governor of Kogi State, Governor Yahaya Bello, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to be quite unfortunate, most disturbing and totally unacceptable in a nation governed by laws.
“Indeed, an unbiased assessment of the goings on in this matter profusely showcase grounds for strong suspicion that while the public is being misled into the erroneous impression that the EFCC is trying to fight corruption, it is actually just a pretense in furtherance of a personal vendetta on behalf of, and, at the behest of persons in government intent on the bastardisation of our institutions of state.
“The EFCC Chairman, in a most bizarre and utterly absurd approach to law enforcement, confessed to having offered former Governor Yahaya Bello the option of passing through the backdoor of the commission’s headquarters for preferential treatment in the Chairman’s own office!
“By the way, this highly irregular and unorthodox offer was made not vide a proper invitation in the contemplation of law but through the most irregular route of a mere phone call, according to the EFCC Chairman.
“In the midst of this show of shame, the EFCC Chairman then proceeded to appoint himself a judge, jury and executioner by transferring a case the agency he heads had purportedly filed in court to the court of public opinion, clearly in the hope of whipping up public sentiments against former Governor Yahaya Bello and unleashing mob justice on him.
Prosecuting him; you brazenly engage in forum shopping; you proceed in gestapo fashion to carry out an illegal arrest; you secretly file an appeal out of time; you then withdraw that appeal quietly only for news of that withdrawal to filter out days later; clearly realising you do not have a case, you proceed to tarnish the reputation of a citizen you claim to have a case to answer by calling a press conference most unbecoming of a lawyer, public official and government agency!
“You try to tarnish the reputation of a sitting Governor by accusing him of smuggling his predecessor from a private residence only for you to admit that you were actually the one who offered to smuggle him through the backdoor into your office at the headquarters of a government agency!
A Constitutional Lawyer, Ewa Okpo, has described the actions of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the ongoing face-off with the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, as “trial by mischief”.
In an interview on Arise TV’s morning show on Saturday, the legal practitioner specifically stated that it was wrong, in the first instance, for the EFCC to attempt to arrest the former Governor when it was aware of a subsisting restraining order, which had not been vacated as of the time of its action.
He said the whole “drama” was centred around an abuse of court process.
“I think that it is a rather unfortunate narrative for Nigeria, and to summarize the whole of this drama in legal terms would be to just say, look, this is an abuse of the court process.
“Why do I say abuse of court process? To successfully prosecute anybody in Nigeria, in this case, the EFCC is prosecuting Yahaya Bello; there are six categories of laws that you must follow.
“The ground law being the Constitution, administration of Criminal Justice Act, the law that empowers the prosecutor, in this case, EFCC Act; the law that defines the offence and the punishment, in this case, Money Laundering Act; and then the law of the courts with jurisdiction.
”In this case, that would be the Federal High Court Act, Practice Directive and the rest of it that guide proceedings at the Federal High Court, and, of course, the Evidence Act and other ancillary legislations.
”Now what is expected of the EFCC in this instance, where you follow all of these laws put together? They ought to have at first invited the suspect (officially), in the person of Mr Yahaya Bello; when he refuses to honour the invite; EFCC does not even need to get a warrant from the court; it is an administrative power to issue a warrant,” he said.
According to him, in line with all the steps he enumerated, the EFCC failed to follow proper legal procedures in the matter.
”Sadly, you know, they rather attempted to arrest the man when they could not arrest him. Being smart, I must give it to Yahaya Bello; he got his lawyers, and they ran to the court and got an order restraining the EFCC.
”Now you must understand because I think that what the EFCC is trying to do now is what can be described as trial by mischief,” he stated.
Okpo added that court orders restraining law enforcement agencies from harassing or arresting individuals should be respected and emphasized that such orders do not restrain the courts themselves.
He condemned the EFCC’s disregard for the court orders and stressed the need for accountability within law enforcement agencies.
Okpo also commended the court’s intervention, stressing that it served as a crucial check on the actions of law enforcement agencies and promotes adherence to the rule of law.
“Now, the EFCC is the watchdog. We need the EFCC to function in Nigeria. But in the course of them being the watchdog, who watches them? And so when there is an order, EFCC, you cannot correct wrong by doing wrong.
“Since there was an order restraining the EFCC, they had no business attempting to arrest Mr. Yahaya Bello,” he said.
Similarly, Hundreds of Civil Society Organisations took to the streets in Lagos on Wednesday to protest “the continued disrespect for the rule of law and undue harassment of a citizen of Nigeria” by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The activists condemned the fact that the EFCC chairman failed to provide any documentary evidence of an official invitation sent to former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, yet the Commission declared him wanted and had subjected him to “unprecedented and reckless media trials despite a subsisting Court order which protected him at the time they laid a siege on his residence.”
They alleged that the EFCC-Bello saga appeared like a case of selective hatred targeted at an individual for no concrete cause.
The movement, led by the Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, Debo Adeniran, many frontline Anti-Corruption and human rights crusaders, said this in Lagos.
The activists addressed a press conference before staging a protest rally.
Adeniran called on the younger ones in the mix to rise up and become activists if they were not acitivists already, saying that a society where fundamental human rights were not obeyed and rule of law broken by enforcement agencies could not stand the test of time.
The activists said it was sad that the agency had so much thrown away professionalism but playing to the gallery on a daily basis without any legal substance other than the threats and application of brute state force, irrespective of what the court says.
They said they would be in the struggle for as long as it would take the EFCC to follow due process, alleging that, from the consistent attack on Bello, despite being protected by the law, his life might be in danger.
“The continuing threats of violence in apprehending the former Governor is uncalled for. All you need do is vacate your restraining order and invite the man. If he doesn’t show up, at that point you can get him arrested. But as of the time of the siege, no formal invitation had been extended to him,” the CSOs added.
Meanwhile, Professor Nwoke Friday Chijioke, the former Vice President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, has spoken out against the press conference conducted by the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), particularly in relation to its discussion of Yahaya Bello, the former Governor of Kogi State.
Speaking on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television, Prof. Chijioke criticized the EFCC’s approach, denouncing it as an unfair trial and labelling it as a form of media trial.
He stressed the importance of discretion in such matters, emphasizing that institutions of justice, like the EFCC, should conduct investigations discreetly without involving the media.
His words: ”The EFCC chairman’s press conference of yesterday was really uncalled for. That is unfair trial. All these challenges are because of what I would call a media trial.
”An institution of justice should be in a position, especially when you are the investigator, carry out a discrete investigation. You do not need to involve the media.
”For example, the EFCC’s chairman interview yesterday was really, really uncalled for. It was uncalled for in the sense that you do not need to accord any privilege to Yahaya Bello.
”The law does not require the according or the giving of privileges to persons who are suspected of having committed an offense. That is one.
”Secondly, the law necessarily does not need, especially in situations of this nature. In corruption cases, you don’t necessarily need to make an arrest. You don’t need to bring into custody. Because more often than not, in corruption cases, they are determined by documentary evidence.
”If you make out a prima facie case and you have evidence to make out a prima facie case, why don’t you file a case in court and serve the accused person? Why would you, in the first instance, perhaps advertise or publicize? Because that is, in the first instance, unfair hearing.”
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations has kicked against the increasing media trial of the immediate past Governor of Kogi State by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, saying the development is “grossly unprofessional and uncalled for.”
The No Corruption Coalition, at a press conference on Thursday in Lagos, said it decided to add its voice to call for the respect of the rule of law, owing to the growing concern about the recent avoidable crisis between the Commission and the Governor.
The acitivists said the outburst of the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, which revealed that no formal letter of invitation was extended to ex-Gov Bello, had shown clearly that the operation the EFCC operatives went to carry out in his house was illegal and had “no other interpretation than oppression, persecution and political witchunt.”
The Convener of the Coalition, Comrade Akintunde Adedeji (a.k.a Boosecart), said members of the coalition were not questioning the constitutional mandate of the EFCC to investigate and prosecute corruption matters.
“But the attitude of the Chairman has given a lot of credence to the suspicions in some quarters that the Commission is doing the bidding of some powerful interests around the presidency to politically persecute former Governor Yahaya Bello,” he said.
They criticised the EFCC boss for allowing emotions to take over his job, saying he should go to court and marshal his points in the presence of a judge rather than engaging in aggressive media blackmail of the defendant.
Adedeji said, “Part of the obnoxious media trials includes sending lawyers to TV stations to go and turn law upside down by claiming that the Commission can violate court orders at will. This won’t help them at all. Everyone is in court now, so the status quo must be maintained. That’s a decent way to go about.
“Considering the premeditated media trials and threats to the defendant’s life through military invasion, we demand that the Federal Government apologise to Yahaya Bello. From the outburst of the EFCC’s Chairman, Barrister Olukoyede, it has shown clearly that the operation they went to carry out in his house was illegal and has no other interpretation than oppression, persecution and political witchunt.
“The withdrawal of the Appeal also shows that they knew a case was pending when they laid siege on his house in the desperate bid to detain him without respect for lawful court orders on his fundamental human rights as guaranteed under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.”
On Olukoyede’s alleged media trial, the Coalition stated, “If the head of an agency investigating your case is taking the case so personal, as to be engaging in such emotional outbursts, it is already clear that it is persecution.
“You told Someone to come through the backdoor, and he said, no, he is not a thief, he would rather come through the front door. But do things according to the law. For that he has incurred your wrath. Where is justice in this scenario?
“Yahaya Bello may not have constitutional immunity anymore, but he has his humanity. We demand that his humanity be respected and he deserves some respect as a former chief executive of a state in this country without prejudice to the allegations against him.
“Until he is convicted by a Court of competent jurisdiction, EFCC should stop its maligning campaigns of blackmail via incessant media trials. The consistent procurement of lawyers willing to throw away their honor in order to compromise the spirit and letter of our laws and, through deliberate mischief, misinterpret the law to suit the persecution agenda of their masters, has further exposed the fact that what’s currently ongoing is nothing but political witch-hunting.”
“For how long are the authorities willing to go to continue bastardizing out legal procedures and rubbishing our courts? For how long will a mere suspect be treated like a terrorist and hounded like a common criminal? For how long will wielders of state power continue to misuse it? We will not sit idle and allow rule of law truncated without fighting to save our democracy.
“We demand that all parties to this dispute revert to the hallowed chambers of court rooms and be guided strictly by the decisions of courts of competent jurisdiction. Until that happens, Yahaya Bello must be treated like a free citizen of this country that he is,” the Coalition said.
However, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dele Momodu, has faulted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s conduct in its attempt to prosecute the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.
He said he had expected the anti-graft agency’s boss, Ola Olukoyede, to have learnt from the cases of his predecessors, who he said were “booted out ignominiously”.
Momodu, who spoke on his Instagram Live show, while responding to questions on the burning topic by viewers, also frowned at the issue of selective prosecution, saying “a situation where EFCC would have to be told who can be touched and who cannot be touched is unacceptable.”
He said, “When they brought in the new chairman, I thought oh, you will have the benefit of learning from your predecessors. All of them were booted out ignominiously and if I were in the shoes of the current chairman, what I will simply do is make sure I do my job as meticulously, as professionally, as efficiently as possible. And, you will never go wrong if you obey the rule of law.
“I watched the EFCC chairman, I think either last week or the week before the last, I was almost crying because the way he went on and on..if I don’t do this… spitting fire and all.. you don’t have to do media trial.”
When asked if EFCC was lying about the former Governor, he said, “I have no idea, I don’t work for EFCC but from all the things that I have read, a lot of them, they misfired. That is the honest truth. They misfired. They didn’t do their due diligence. When you said a man took out money and paid for his children’s school fees, just as he was about to leave power, and you go and check the documents and you see that these things started happening from 2021, 2022 (laughs); I am not an illiterate.
“How do you expect me to believe everything they said when they were too much in a hurry to prosecute him that they did not take their time to check the file. Once you allow a lacuna in law, everything will fall flat. “That is it. I am not one of those people who will say because I don’t like APC and because I supported Dino Melaye in the last election in Kogi State. Dino is my guy. But, I will not because of that be blinded by hatred for Yahaya Bello and say yes, he should go and surrender himself to EFCC when there is an existing injunction.
“And he is not the only governor who went to court and if the court has granted him that, so be it. We all know that our judiciary is not so perfect but you know, even at that, law is law, it must be obeyed. If we disobey the rule of law, then, we will have to obey the rule of the jungle. So, I never said that they are lying, it is their own statement that shows that they didn’t do their due diligence.”
Momodu, a PDP presidential aspirant, advised President Bola Tinubu not to allow people mislead him into disregarding the rule of law, saying those people would not be there for him tomorrow.
“My advice to President Tinubu is, don’t listen to all these people who will run away when tomorrow comes. Just follow the rule of law. I am appealing, obey the rule of law…. A situation where the EFCC will have to be told who can be touched, who cannot be touched; It is unacceptable. It is unacceptable! And that is why a lot of people have given up. You can see that a lot of serious people are not even interested in whatever they are doing to Yahaya Bello. A lot of people are not interested because they have felt all the ‘gra gra’ before, it is nothing new,” he stated.
The veteran journalist added that there were a lot of criminals in the system to prosecute but a situation where the agency was getting personal on just one person was uncalled for.
“Nigerians should stop wasting time. There are a lot of criminals in our system to prosecute but when the chairman who should take the people to court comes and say to one person, ‘if I don’t prosecute you to conclusion, I will resign’, that is getting personal. You don’t need all that,” he pointed out.
He disclosed that one of his favourite books while growing up was The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine and that it had influenced him so much that he would always defend the rights of everybody to fair hearing even if he had something against the person.
“I don’t hate anybody as a Christian. I don’t have anything against Yahaya Bello. If they like, they can choose to jail him for one million years, as long as you try him properly. This is my position, you can quote me on it,” he said.
Still on the issue of school fees, Momodu said, “I mean, I looked at the issue of school fees. Before I read, I was like how can somebody pay that kind of money? Then, when I read, it was something else I was seeing. They said he paid upfront just before he left government, and when I checked, that was not what happened. How can you try people before you will go and examine the fact?”
On if he had resigned from the PDP, he said, “If I resign, that means I am quiting. No, I am still a member of the PDP. I said it clearly after the election in 2022 during the PDP primary, they asked us, if you don’t get our ticket, are you going go jump ship? And, I said, I can’t, I won’t jump ship and I stand by that.”
We, however, urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to allow the law its course.
SUNSHINETRUTH also advises the anti-graft agency to desist from media trial as this is antidemocratic.
