Yahaya Bello, the immediate former governor of Kogi State, was granted N500 million bail by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, along with two sureties in an equivalent amount.
This came after the former governor entered a not-guilty plea to the 19 counts that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had filed against him.
Yahaya Bello entered a not-guilty plea to all of the accusations in the purported N80 billion money laundering trial.
The EFCC’s counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, informed the court that the prosecution intended to withdraw an earlier plea for abridgement of the earlier date set for arraignment when the matter was summoned for hearing on Friday.
He said that circumstances had taken precedence over the application. Since Yahaya Bello’s attorney, Joseph Daudu, SAN, did not raise any objections, Justice Emeka Nwite approved the request.
Daudu, SAN, provided explanations for the defendant’s absence from court at the prior sessions after he had entered his plea.
The lawyer said:
“I would like to place on record that for any impression that might have been created that the defendant did not wish to appear before your lordship, coincidentally, the ruling on my lord’s sitting this morning dealt with the issue of jurisdiction.
“What the defendant did was to ask his counsel to challenge the jurisdiction of the court, which got to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
“So it was not wishful disrespect, but he was only trying to defend himself. So we all hold your lordship in high esteem. If that impression must have been, he should not have presented himself for arraignment. That episode is gone, and things are clearer now.”
He promised that the former governor, Yahaya Bello would always be in court for the trial while submitting an application for bail.
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cc: Daily Post Ng
