Yahaya Bello, the former governor, has requested an indefinite postponement of the ongoing case that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has brought against him before the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.
In addition, Mr. Bello requested that the court set aside the order of arrest against him while his appeal at the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, was being considered.
Mr. Bello’s attorney, Musa Yakubu, outlined the demands in a letter. The letter, dated July 12, was written to Justice Emeka Nwite, the trial judge, prior to Mr. Bello’s anticipated arraignment on Wednesday, July 17.
The former governor of Kogi is on trial for embezzlement of N80 billion. However, Mr. Bello has voiced concerns about what would happen to him if the case goes forward in his appeal against his trial.
In the Appellate case CA/ABJ/CR/535/2024, Mr. Bello is attempting to vacate the arrest warrant that was allegedly obtained against him on April 17, 2024, on the grounds that it was unlawfully issued. In order to allocate the case file to a different judge, he also requests that it be returned to the top judge of the Federal High Court.
Under charge number FHC/ABJ/CR/98/2024, the appeal was filed in opposition to the rulings of the trial Federal High Court, Abuja Division. The former governor is also requesting an order from the appeal court to nullify the EFCC charge that was served on him through an alternative method, along with all of the case’s previous procedures.
In the letter, Mr. Bello asked that the charge’s ongoing proceedings be put on hold indefinitely while the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, considers his appeal.
A duplicate of the correspondence was further dispatched to the National Judicial Council in reaction to a July 8, 2024, letter submitted by the EFCC to Justice Nwite, which was received on July 10, 2024.
The EFCC asked for a modification of the previous arrest warrant against Mr. Bello in the aforementioned letter. They also asked for precise instructions to be given to the different security services to execute the prior arrest.
In response to the EFCC’s plea, Mr. Bello’s attorney asked the court to deny the request and hold off on making any decisions regarding the trial court’s related rulings and the aforementioned arrest warrant until after the appeal over them is resolved at the appellate court.
The legal situation as stated in Order 4 Rule 11(1) of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2021, the ruling made by the Supreme Court in the Vab Petroleum INC V. Momah (Supra) case, as well as a long list of other cases, were mentioned by Mr. Bello’s attorney.
Justice Nwite was alerted in the letter to a related case involving a criminal appeal and a stay of further proceedings by Justice Ismail Ijelu of the Lagos High Court. In that instance, the appellant had filed an appeal under appeal number CAIL/1159/2023 between Cletus Ibeto and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In light of his preliminary objection, the appellant was contesting the validity of the warrant of arrest that had been issued against him and the lower court’s authority to consider the complaint that had been brought against him.
