Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello

Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, an accountant from Okene LGA, Kogi State, served as Governor of Kogi State for two consecutive terms from 27 January 2016 to 27 January 2024 on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, having won a controversial supplementary election following the death of APC candidate Abubakar Audu mid-poll in November 2015. He handed over to his hand-picked successor and former Chief of Staff, Usman Ododo, on 27 January 2024. Almost immediately after his immunity lapsed, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) moved against him. On 9 March 2024 the EFCC filed a 19-count charge at the Federal High Court Abuja (suit FHC/ABJ/CR/98/2024) before Justice Emeka Nwite, alleging money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of N80,246,470,088.88 of Kogi State funds; co-defendants Ali Bello (his nephew/cousin and former Kogi Chief of Staff), Dauda Suleiman and Abdulsalam Hudu were charged alongside. On 17 April 2024 EFCC operatives laid a seven-hour siege to Bello's residence at No. 9 Benghazi Street, Wuse Zone 4, Abuja, while armed personnel attached to the residence prevented entry; in the early afternoon his successor, Governor Usman Ododo, arrived in convoy and, according to the EFCC's contemporaneous statement, breached the security cordon and 'whisked' Bello away in his own vehicle, leveraging the sitting governor's constitutional immunity. The EFCC declared Bello wanted on 18 April 2024. A roughly five-month standoff followed during which Bello relied on a Kogi State High Court (Lokoja Division) injunction of 9 February 2024 restraining EFCC from arresting or prosecuting him pending the determination of a fundamental-rights enforcement action — an injunction the Court of Appeal in August 2024 effectively neutralised by ordering Bello to appear for arraignment, and quashing the Kogi contempt summons against EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede. On 18 September 2024 EFCC operatives stormed the Kogi State Government Lodge in Abuja in a second attempted arrest, again unsuccessfully. On 26 November 2024 Bello presented himself in Ododo's company at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja and was placed in EFCC custody (the EFCC characterised the event as an arrest rather than a voluntary surrender). On 27 November 2024 he was arraigned at the FCT High Court Maitama before Justice Maryanne Anenih, alongside co-defendants Umar Shuaibu Oricha and Abdulsalam Hudu, on a separate 16-count charge filed under suit FCT/HC/CR/778/24 alleging criminal breach of trust of N110,446,470,089 (contrary to sections 96 and 311 of the Penal Code Law Cap.89, Laws of Northern Nigeria 1963, punishable under section 312); he pleaded not guilty. Justice Anenih initially declined bail as prematurely filed and remanded him in Kuje Correctional Centre; bail of N500 million with three sureties was granted on 19 December 2024. On 13 December 2024 he was separately arraigned before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court Abuja in the N80.2 billion suit, pleaded not guilty, and was admitted to N500 million bail with two sureties (who must own Abuja property), surrender of his international passport, and movement restrictions. The EFCC's case at trial alleges that state funds were converted through multiple bank accounts and shell entities (including Forza Oil and Gas, Alyeshua Solutions Services and Unnati General Trading LLC of the UAE) and used to (i) pay advance school fees of $760,910.84 to American International School Abuja under a pre-paid agreement dated 23 August 2021 covering Bello's children including a pre-school child through to 2034/35, signed on the family side by his nephew Ali Bello; (ii) acquire a Dubai property valued at over 5 million Dirhams in the Burj Khalifa neighbourhood and a property at No. 35 Danube Street, Maitama, Abuja for N950 million; and (iii) acquire further high-value properties subsequently subject to interim forfeiture orders restored by the Court of Appeal in Lagos on 6 August 2025. Bello has consistently denied the allegations through counsel led by Adeola Adedipe (SAN), arguing that EFCC's actions violated subsisting court orders, that his client was not properly served, and that the prosecution's evidence (particularly testimony that Bello himself was not named in the school-fee transactions, per the 14th prosecution witness in October 2025) does not link him personally to the impugned payments. EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede publicly committed in 2024 to resign if Bello were not prosecuted; he later stated in January 2026 that he had 'done his work' and the case remained in court. As of May 2026 trial in both prosecutions is ongoing; in the Anenih court six witnesses had testified by the 9 October 2025 adjournment to 12 November 2025; in the Nwite court prosecution witnesses including the AISA internal auditor Nicholas Okehone had given evidence on the advance-school-fee payments. No conviction has been entered in either case. In May 2026, despite both prosecutions, Bello won the APC primary for the Kogi Central Senatorial District seat.