Ali Bello, the nephew of former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, was on trial for N10.27 billion corruption at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday.
ENigeria Newspaper understands that the prosecution witness claimed that the defendant transferred money to accomplices through bureau de change (BDC) operators.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prosecuting Mr. Bello and Dauda Sulaiman on modified 16 allegations of money laundering and misappropriation. Mr. Bello is the Chief of Staff to the current Kogi State Governor Usman Ododo. They allegedly committed the crimes while Governor Yahaya Bello was in office.
The seventeenth prosecution witness, Ahmed Abubakar, informed the court that Mr. Bello approved the transfer of money via BDCs to people he referred to as his “cronies.”
According to the witness, the younger Mr. Bello acknowledged the inflows and outflows of money managed through the BDCs in an extrajudicial statement.
“The utilisation of the funds in the BDC were carried out by the instruction of the first defendant; most of them are the cronies of the first defendant. The spending of the money is for the first defendant and for the former governor. Some of the beneficiaries were the cronies of the first defendant,” the witness said.
The witness also claimed that some of the money was given to people and organizations, including Mother Care Welfare, a non-governmental organization purportedly owned by the former governor’s wife.
In addition, he indicated payments to people, including one Mumuni Benghazi, as well as transactions related to car and real estate purchases.
The witness informed the court that a beneficiary named Dantata was purportedly given a total of N100 million intranches, consisting of an initial N80 million payment for a property and a subsequent N20 million balance.
The witness cited statements ascribed to the defendant as well as papers that had already been admitted as exhibits. The witness persisted in his testimony as defense attorneys Ahmed Raji and O. Jolaooyo, both SANs, cross-examined him.
At the end of the day, James Omotosho, the trial judge, postponed the case to today so that cross-examination could continue.
