Alli Bello, the Chief of Staff to Kogi State Governor, and one Daudu Suleiman were re-arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday at the Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly misappropriating N84 billion.
On December 15, 2022, the anti-graft agency charged Bello, who is also the nephew of former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, and Suleiman with ten charges of alleged misappropriation and money laundering.
The EFCC accused Bello and Hudu, a cashier at Kogi State Government House who is still at large, of withdrawing N10 billion from the state’s treasury for personal use.
The EFCC updated charges to include 17 counts of money laundering, breach of trust, and theft of funds totaling N84bn.
The name of the state’s immediate past governor, Bello, was referenced in one of the charges and was reported to be at large.
Count one of the charges read, “That you, Ali Bello, Dauda Suleiman, Yahaya Adoza Bello (still at large) and Abdulsalam Hudu (still at large), sometime in September 2015 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves to convert the total sum of N80bn which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of your unlawful activity to wit: criminal breach of trust and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(b) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended.”
The EFCC further accused Alli Bello and Dauda Suleman of concealing several million naira with Rabiu Musa Tafada, an Abuja-based Bureau De Change operator who trades under the name Global Venture.
The defendants pled not guilty once the charges were read to them.
Justice James Omotoso, the trial court, ordered that Alli Bello and Suleman be allowed to continue enjoying the bail conditions given to them in earlier cases.
The case was then deferred until March 20 and March 21 for trial continuation.