Posted by Samuel on Thu 25th Apr, 2024 - tori.ng
The EFCC has been making efforts to arraign Bello on 19 counts bordering on alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds to the tune of N80.2 billion.
Certain loyalists and supporters of the embattled former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, have turned to spiritual intervention to address his challenges with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC has been making efforts to arraign Bello on 19 counts bordering on alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds to the tune of N80.2 billion.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, last Tuesday, ordered EFCC to serve a copy of the 19 criminal counts against the fleeing Yahaya Bello to his lawyer.
The EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, during the week, said he would resign from office if Bello was not eventually prosecuted for the fraud allegations levelled against him.
However, in a viral video seen by SaharaReporters, a group of his loyalists are seen at a shrine seeking spiritual intervention that will enable the former governor to escape justice in the money laundering charges brought against him.
The loyalists who spoke in Igbira, a prominent local language in Kogi, described Bello as a good man and prayed that he succeeds Bola Tinubu as the next president of Nigeria.
“The good things Yahaya Bello did is what he's going to reap,” one of them is heard saying in the video.
He continues: “We heard he allegedly stole money and the issue with EFCC that for which they want to arrest him are all lies. He didn't steal any money.
“We pray for his triumph today as we stand in front of the great ancestral god praying that Yahaya Bello should come out victorious and become the next president of Nigeria.”
Last Wednesday, SaharaReporters reported how Bello was smuggled to Lokoja, the state capital by the Kogi State governor, Usman Ododo.
SaharaReporters earlier on Wednesday reported that shots were fired as Ododo smuggled the former governor out of the latter's house in Abuja, with the help of a retinue of policemen.
EFCC Personnel had laid siege to Bello’s residence in Abuja to arrest him, but Ododo later arrived at the house with policemen who assisted him in whisking Bello away in his (Ododo's) official vehicle.