A Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday July 21, rejected a request by former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, for the release of his international passport to seek medical treatment abroad.
Justice Emeka Nwite ruled that the medical report submitted to support the request was unsigned and, therefore, legally invalid.
“The defendant has failed to place sufficient material before this court for his passport to be released for him to travel. Consequently, this application is hereby refused,” the judge declared.
Bello, who is standing trial in a money laundering case filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had applied for the release of his travel document to enable him travel to the United Kingdom for medical attention.
His lawyer, Joseph Daudu, SAN, told the court that his client had been hypertensive for 15 years and submitted two medical exhibits to support the claim.
However, Justice Nwite noted that one of the exhibits, a medical report identified as Exhibit B, “is devoid of probative value and cannot be relied upon by the Court,” since it was not signed by its author. “An unsigned document carries no weight in law and is considered worthless,” he added.
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The EFCC had urged the court to dismiss the motion, arguing that it was a duplication of earlier requests and technically incompetent, as the sureties who guaranteed Bello’s bail were not notified. But the judge disagreed.
“The counsel to the complainant did not cite any section of the law that says sureties should be given notice or made a party in the motion on notice,” he said. “The counsel did not cite any law, whether locally or internationally, to back his argument.”
On the issue of whether the application was an abuse of court process, the judge ruled otherwise.
“It is not in dispute that the applicant is standing trial before this court and FCT court,” he said. “It is also the fact that this court and the FCT High Court are courts of coordinate jurisdiction.”
Justice Nwite concluded that the motion was not an abuse of process, but ultimately denied the request due to lack of credible evidence.
The trial was adjourned to October 7 and 10 and November 10 and 11, 2025.