The trial of former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello, continued on Tuesday, November 11, 2025, before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Maitama, Abuja, with a prosecution witness revealing detailed cash movements in and out of Kogi State Local Government statutory accounts.
Bello is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on 19 counts bordering on money laundering to the tune of ₦80,246,470,088.88 (Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-Six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand and Eighty-Eight Naira, Eighty-Eight Kobo).
This was contained in a statement posted on the EFCC’s official X handle on Tuesday.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, the seventh prosecution witness, Olomotane Egoro, a compliance officer with Access Bank, while being led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), identified several bank documents already tendered and admitted in evidence by the court, including Exhibits 34(1) and 34(2).
He described them as the “Kogi State Government House Account Administrative Opening Package” and the “Kogi State Government House Administrative Statement of Account from January 1, 2016, to January 31, 2024,” respectively, adding that both documents related to the same account.
Pinheiro drew the witness’s attention to transactions dated December 21, 2018, where Egoro confirmed a series of cash withdrawals in favour of one Aminu Jimoh Olarenwaju.
“My Lord, there was a cash withdrawal of ₦10 million in favour of one Aminu Jimoh Olarenwaju,” the witness said, adding that “there were two additional lodgements of ₦10 million each to the same beneficiary that same day.”
Further analysis of the account revealed that on December 24, 2018, five cash payments of ₦10 million each, totalling ₦50 million, were also made to the same beneficiary.
According to the witness, this pattern was consistent across multiple pages of the statement, including transactions recorded on March 8, 2019, when 10 cash withdrawals of ₦10 million each, amounting to ₦100 million, were made to the same account holder.
Egoro also disclosed that on August 1, 2019, the account recorded 30 cash withdrawals of ₦10 million each, totalling ₦300 million, in favour of Abdulsalami Hudu.
He further told the court that on July 31, 2019, the account received ₦300 million, and by the next day, August 1, 2019, the same amount was withdrawn in cash — a pattern he described as “suspicious.”
The prosecution also presented Exhibit 33(8), being the statement of account of Faza Business Enterprise, covering January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2022, which the witness confirmed originated from Access Bank.
Reviewing transactions on May 6, 2022, Egoro told the court that the account, which previously had a balance of ₦75,728, received multiple inflows from statutory revenue and VAT accounts of 11 Local Government Areas in Kogi State.
These included Omala, Yagba West, Idah, Okene, Ijumu, Olamaboro, Ofu, Okehi, and Ogori-Magongo, among others, totalling ₦103,375,059.75 on that single day.
On May 9, 2022, the witness further disclosed that two additional inflows of ₦7,440,972.06 and ₦7,122,729.92 were received from Ibaji and Dekina Local Government Councils, respectively, bringing the total sum from 13 local governments to approximately ₦117 million.
