₦80.2 Billon Fraud: Yahaya Bello Denies Claims Of Shunning Invitation, Challenges EFCC To Provide Evidence

The former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has refuted claims of shunning the invitation from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Recall that the EFCC had said Yahaya Bello was invited for interrogation on January 27 this year but shunned the summon, thereby declaring him a fugitive after the attempt to arrest him in his Abuja residence failed.

However, in a statement on Tuesday signed by his media office, Ohiare Michael, Yahaya Bello expressed that the allegations were blatant lies and challenged the anti-graft agency to produce a copy of the invitation letter.

He asserted that the EFCC has only resorted to using intimidation and harassment against him,

According to the statement, “Our attention has been drawn to a publication/press statement with the above title, issued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, 22nd April 2024, and signed by Wilson Uwujaren, its Acting Director of Public Affairs.

“In the said statement, which the Commission carefully circulated widely as usual, Mr. Uwujaren, who we have to believe is not a lawyer, continues the EFCC’s ongoing unconscionable lies against the former Governor of Kogi State, His Excellency, Yahaya Bello, CON, by labelling him as a fugitive from justice in order to disingenuously justify their established and willful pattern of defying lawful court orders.

“The EFCC claims to have invited Alhaji Yahaya Bello immediately after his tenure ended on January 27th, 2024.
“We challenge the EFCC to produce a copy of this invitation, including the delivery date and the recipient’s name/endorsement. We are confident they cannot provide this simple evidence.

“Contrary to Mr. Uwujaren’s claims, official records and court documents relating to their hounding of Alhaji Yahaya Bello establish a clear timeline of events. These documents are endorsed with dates and times of filing and payments, which are endorsed on court processes – all of which testify to the true sequence of events.”