Chetam Nwokike: Yahaya Bello Vs EFCC: The persecution is real

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has cleared all doubts in the case of Alhaji Yayaha Bello, former governor of Kogi state. It’s a case of persecution, certainly not prosecution. The event of September 18, 2024 has finally removed the last veil that masked the mischief of Ola Olukoyede, the Chairman of the EFCC in his crusade of calumny against a man he has several times pronounced guilty as charged when he is not a court of law.

EFCC and Bello had been engaged in a ding-dong over allegations of fraud against the former Kogi governor. On this count, the anti-graft agency declared Bello wanted after several failed attempts to arrest him gestapo-style in the full glare of the media which the EFCC invited to witness the arrest. It bears restating that the EFCC had been rabidly crass in its attempts to prosecute Bello, who it must be stressed, no longer enjoys any form of immunity from prosecution.

Bello and his lawyers know this and have never hidden their desire to make court appearance to answer to the charges against the former governor.

On many counts, Bello had approached the courts to enforce his fundamental human rights having considered the vicious and largely unlawful manner the EFCC had been hounding him. Not a few persons had wondered if the case of Bello vs the EFCC was just a matter of alleged fraud or something else. The EFCC open resort to impunity just to arrest Bello leaves so much to the imagination. And whether EFCC likes it or not, the Bello matter, like many in the past, has exposed the dirty underbelly of the anti-graft agency.

Two key moments in the Bello prosecution (persecution, as some argue, rightly so) define the EFCC and its Chairman, Olukoyede, as entities on a vendetta, rather than crusaders against graft. On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, Olukoyede in the full glare of the media and diverse global audiences passed a verdict of ‘guilty’ on Yahaya Bello.

It was a crude enactment of the Latin phrase, ‘Nemo judex in causa sua’ which roughly translates as: “No man can judge his own cause; or be a judge in his own cause.”

At a media briefing in which senior editors were present, Olukoyede waxed emotional as he convicted Bello before the media and before the world. The EFCC Chair did not allege that Bello embezzled funds from Kogi treasury, he said pointedly that the former governor stole from a state as poor as Kogi. With a microphone and right before the media, Olukoyede gave a vivid account of how the former governor withdrew money from the state coffers to pay for his children’s school fees upfront.

This is something an EFCC witness should be telling the court, not EFCC Chairman telling the media. He even threatened to resign if Bello was not prosecuted to the end. He was emotional as he was recklessly showy in his theatrics to tar Bello, still a suspect until pronounced guilty by a court of law, in the darkest colour of ignominy.

There is a huge difference between law and emotion.

Cases are determined on documentary evidence, not on the whims of emotions or imagination. Debating the details of a Charge Sheet in the media by the prosecutor is not only sub-judice but also an affront on the defendant’s constitutional right to fair hearing.

Why is EFCC engaging in needless drama if it has established a prima facie case against Bello? And why should the Chairman of the commission be the person huffing and puffing with a microphone before the media in a matter that is already active in court? Is there a hidden agenda in the Bello case that Olukoyede is in a hurry to execute by whim, and not via the due process of the court of law?

And having failed on several counts to arrest Bello gestapo-style with ‘arranged’ media coverage, EFCC declared him ‘Wanted’ and even enlisted InterPol to aid his arrest. But while this strategy was still on, Bello showed up at EFCC office in Abuja. His showing up at EFCC office on September 18 put a lie to the EFCC claim that he was a fugitive from the law. But here is the curious aspect of the saga which underscores claims that EFCC has switched from prosecution to persecution and vicious victimisation in the Bello case.

Bello had stayed away from EFCC because of a court order restraining the commission from arresting and harassing him. But as soon as the order was vacated, the same Bello appeared in the office of EFCC intending to be interrogated by operatives of the commission if only to prove that he is not a fugitive from the law. Strangely, EFCC officials asked the man they declared ‘wanted’ to go home without taking him in and interrogating him.

To declare a man wanted means you are looking for him and such a man should be arrested anywhere he is seen. This same Bello brought himself to you to make your job easier, but you let him go without interrogation, at the very least. The excuse by EFCC was that they could not ‘take him in’ because he came with a sitting governor. How intelligent is that? But that same day, at dusk, the same EFCC operatives invading the lodge of the sitting governor to arrest the same Bello. At that point, EFCC did not consider that if Bello were in that lodge, the same immunity that covered him while he made appearance at your office still subsists for him inside the lodge where a sitting governor lives.

To make the case even more curious, you came at night and succeeded in enacting another comical movie, a dramatic trend that now defines your operations. EFCC should spare the nation this drama. Olukoyede, a lawyer, should know that fighting corruption that openly subverts court orders and violates the fundamental human rights of ‘suspects’ is in itself an act of corruption.

Nigerians want a corruption-free society. They desire that all anti-crime agencies including the EFCC should be above board. But under Olukoyede, there has been allegation of sleaze and bribery against operatives of the commission. This should worry Olukoyede, that a commission he heads, never mind the controversy that heralded his appointment, is enmeshed in allegations of bribery. While not making any case for Bello, Olukoyede should be told that Nigerians are not fooled by his inaction and ambivalence on cases of corruption involving former governors who are now holding top positions in the executive and legislature. Their files are gathering dust in EFCC office unattended to. Is it a case of selective amnesia, selective prosecution or selective justice?

This show of obvious bias against Bello by Olukoyede strengthens insinuations in some quarters that Bello might not get fair hearing in this matter. Justice is at risk when bias is at work. I am sure that even President Bola Tinubu would be embarrassed by the needless drama being enacted by the EFCC. Olukoyede should stop jumping the gun and follow the due process of the law.

*Nwokike, a policy analyst, writes from Abuja

Chetam Nwokike: Yahaya Bello Vs EFCC: The persecution is real