The head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, disclosed how he contacted the ex-Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, via telephone, amidst accusations of corruption leveled against him.
Olukoyede shared this insight during a gathering with editors, bureau chiefs, and media executives in Abuja on Tuesday.
“I called Yahaya Bello, as a serving governor, to come to my office to clear himself. I shouldn’t have done that. But he said because a certain senator had planted over 100 journalists in my office, he would not come,” the EFCC boss stated.
“I told him that he would be allowed to use my private gate to give him a cover, but he said my men should come to his village to interrogate him.”
Olukoyede affirmed that the EFCC acted within the ambit of the law while trying to arrest the former governor from his residence.
“Rather, we have obeyed the law. I inherited the case, and I didn’t create it. Why has he not submitted himself to the law?” he asked.
He added, “I have arraigned two past governors who have been granted bail now—Willie Obiano and Abdulfatah Ahmed.”
The EFCC chairman, nonetheless, pledged that individuals implicated in impeding Bello’s apprehension at his Abuja residence will be subject to the full extent of legal consequences.
Speaking further, he said, “We would have gone after him since January, but we waited for the court order.
“As early as 7 am, my men were there. Over 50 of them. They mounted surveillance. We met over 30 armed policemen there. We would have exchanged fire, and there would have been casualties.
“My men were about to move in when the governor of Kogi drove in, and they later changed the narrative.”
He vowed that all those who have dipped their hands into the nation’s coffers would be investigated and prosecuted.
“If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and Chief Olu Agunloye, my kinsman, why not Yahaya Bello?” the anti-graft commission supremo said.
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