A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted Yahaya Bello, a former governor of Kogi State, permission to travel to Saudi Arabia for the 2026 lesser Hajj.
On Thursday, Justice Emeka Nwite granted the temporary release of Bello’s foreign passport, which had been in court custody, so that he could participate in the religious activity.
Bello is now on trial for suspected theft of funds in a case brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The EFCC is prosecuting the former governor for alleged money laundering totaling N80.2 billion, which Bello rejected when he was arraigned.
The former governor, in an application dated January 20 and supported by a 24-paragraph declaration deposed to by himself, requested permission to travel to Saudi Arabia for prayer.
Moving the application, his main counsel, Joseph Daudu, SAN, informed the court that the defendant’s request was to be permitted to travel to the Holy Land during the month of Ramadan to do the lesser Hajj.
Daudu informed the court that Bello had not visited the Holy Land in over eight years and that he needed to go and pray to God to release him from the allegations filed against him by the EFCC.
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Responding, lead prosecution attorney Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, stated that the prosecution would not oppose the defendant’s request to travel for the lesser Hajj, but that it would not yield any of the trial dates already set by the court.
In a brief verdict, Justice Nwite allowed Bello’s motion for the release of his international passport, which had been deposited with the court’s Registrar.
According to the judge, “I have listened to the submissions of counsel in this matter and am minded to grant the application.”
As a result, the court allowed the passport’s release for a 10-day period beginning March 13, 2026, and adjourned proceedings until Friday, January 30th, to continue the examination of the seventh prosecution witness.
Earlier in his testimony, PW7, Olomotane Egoro, a subpoenaed Access Bank executive, told the court about financial inflows from Kogi State’s local government areas into Fazab Business Enterprise and E-Traders International Ltd. accounts.
Egoro further informed the court that many cash withdrawals had been made from the accounts.
