It has been revealed that the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello has engaged in possible money laundering up to the tune of N10 Billion Naira.
Investigations has shown that Governor Bello transferred in installments up to N10 billion naira to a certain Abdulsalami Hudu, who is allegedly a Bureau De Change merchant and another Umar Comfort Olufunke.
The cash transfer was made from the Kogi State Statutory Revenue Account into a Zenith Bank account belonging to Abdulsalami Hudu, with account number 1010662710, from January to December 2018.
Details of the Gov. Bello’s, illicit transfers are expounded below;
“On 01/06/2018, N350 Million was moved from the State account to Hudu’s account in installments of N10 million. 0n 26/02/2018, N400 Million was transferred to Hudu also in installments of N10m.
Between 18/01/2018 and 28/02/2018, Bello instructed that the sum of N450 Million naira be transferred to Hudu in installments of N10 Million.
Between 2/03/18 and 15/03/18, N 900 million was transferred to the same account in Zenith, while on 6/04/18 and 26/06/18, N1 Billion was transferred to Hudu’s account with Zenith.
UMAR COMFORT OLUFUNKE withdrew a total sum of N320, 000, 000 (Three Hundred and Twenty Million Naira) in 2017 from the Kogi State Government House Admin Zenith Bank account Number 1010662710.
Investigation reveals that Governor Yahaya Bello paid large tranche of cash as paid to Umar Comfort Olafunke in a day on various dates:
On 7/21/17, N10, 000, 000 (Ten Million Naira), was transferred 14 times totaling N140, 000,000 (One Hundred and Forty Million);
On 7/4/17, N10, 000, 000 (Ten Million Naira), was transferred 9 times totaling N90, 000, 000 (Ninety Million Naira).
Further investigation in respect of this transaction revealed that:
There was no specified description for the purpose of the funds. The funds may have been laundered or diverted for other uses other than for public good.
Also there was a transfer from the state account was N500 million made to the same Comfort Umar on 23/01/18.
On 28/11/18, eleven transfers of N134, 641,00 was made from the Kogi state IGR account to Airtel Network Limited at UBA with the account number, 105503782. The total amount was N1.485 billion. On 30/11/18, eleven transfers were made from the same IGR account to account number 1020463549 with UBA that belongs to MTN. The same day, N42,735,000 was transferred 13 times to MTN.
On 30/11/18, N10,054,253 was transferred to UBA account number 105503782 that belongs to the National Security and Civil Defense Corp (NSCDC). That transaction was made 12 times to the same account the same day. Total, N132 million.
Governor Yahaya Bello was also accused of stealing N10 Billion, meant for local governments in Kogi State in 2016..
He received the money from the federal government, but no evidence could show what was done with the said N10 Billion.
Also in 2016, Bello was once again accused of diverting N10 billion he allegedly received for the state from the Federal Government meant for local governments.
This allegation was made by the Executive Director of the Centre For Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHCR), Idris Miliki, who challenged Bello to come out and tell the world how the money was spent.
Maliki further accused Bello of squandering the money that was allocated to local governments in the state in April 2016.
“The world is watching all the illegalities perpetuated by Governor Bello’s administration. The government is busy saying they don’t have money, but yet they collected N10 billion on behalf of local governments. What did they use the money for?
