Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, the 11th of November, 2025, put off further hearing in the alleged money laundering case involving the former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello. The dates set for continuation are the 29th, 30th of January and the 4th and 5th of February, 2026, respectively.
The shift in date followed a request to allow prosecution counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, finish leading the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s seventh witness, Olomotame Egoro, in evidence.
When the case was called, the prosecution moved to admit documents labelled as Exhibits 33 (1–11) and 34. These materials were being tendered while Egoro, a Compliance Officer with Access Bank, was in the witness box.
Defence counsel, Abdullahi Yahaya, SAN, raised an objection. He told the court that the exhibit being shown by the prosecution and its witness was unfamiliar to the defendant. He also pointed out that the certificate attached to the document, dated the 17th, bore the signature of “Faruk Idiaro” and not the witness giving evidence. He added that what the defendant received as proof of evidence differed from the document the witness attempted to tender.
Responding, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, said that while the certificate of identification may not match, the main documents remained the same. He then asked the court to allow a brief halt so the defence could verify that the documents mentioned in the certificate were identical to those being presented.
Justice Nwite agreed and paused proceedings, directing both sides to reconcile the issue.
When questioning resumed, Egoro confirmed that the tendered statement of account contained seven columns and explained what each represented. He was taken through the statement of the Kogi State Government House Administration covering December 2018 to August 2021.
Egoro pointed to cash transactions recorded on the 21st of December, 2018, showing payments to one Aminu J.O. totalling N50 million, broken into N10 million tranches. He also confirmed multiple N10 million withdrawals in favour of Abdulsalam Hudu on the 1st of August, 2019.
The witness was then asked to review Exhibit 33-8, the statement of Fazac Business Enterprise from the 1st of January, 2019, to the 31st of December, 2022.
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He identified inflows ranging from N4.49 million to N14.45 million from local governments on the 6th of May , 2022.
On the 9th of May , the account received two deposits of N7.12 million and N9.4 million from two different local governments, after which several withdrawals followed.
After this round of questioning, Justice Nwite set the 29th, 30th of January, and the 4th and 5th of February, 2025, as the new dates for continuation.
At the earlier session, the EFCC’s fourth prosecution witness, Mshelia Arhyel Bata, had restated that withdrawals made by the state government did not violate any banking regulation. Bata, a Compliance Officer with Zenith Bank, also told the court during cross-examination that the former governor’s name did not appear as a beneficiary in the account presented as evidence.