Yahaya Bello: EFCC lawyers pick new date, say Thursday not convenient

…as court adjourns to June 27 for arraignment

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday adjourned arraignment of former governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, on an alleged money laundering case instituted against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to June 27.

Adjournment of the case followed an agreement by the counsels of the two parties.

The new June 27 adjourned date had earlier been reportedly fixed at the instance of the EFCC counsels.

There was, however, a mild drama in court when EFCC council, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN) announced appearance claimed ignorance of the agreement.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, counsel to former Governor Bello, Adeola Adedipe (SAN), told the court that the EFCC lawyers approached counsel for the defendant, AbdulWahab Mohammed (SAN), that the June 13 date would not be convenient for them to proceed, and that they had to agree by way of convenience for another date to be set.

Adedipe, who was in court for another matter, was surprised when he heard that Oyedepo was in court for the Yahaya Bello/EFCC case.

“They (EFCC) agreed that junior counsels would be sent to court today to formally pick a date. And the registry can confirm this.

“Kemi Pinhero SAN is the lead counsel, he has been calling us to say today is not convenient,” Adedipe said.

But for the decision of the EFCC to seek an adjournment to a future date for his arraignment, ex-governor Yahaya Bello, was said to be ready to appear in court.

“Under 266 ACJA there are instances when defendants don’t need to come and this is one of them. We came here to pick a date. Of what use will the defendant coming here be? It is the prosecuting counsel that approached us, we did not approach them. We have nothing to hide,” Adedipe noted.

In a strange twist, however, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, said he was not aware of any meeting that happened outside the court, that he did not know about the understanding to adjourn till 27th.

Justice Nwite thereafter adjourned the case to June 27 after an undertaken by Adedipe SAN that the defendant would appear on that day.

Nwite said, ordinarily, an agreement outside the court that a new date should be picked should not be enough to ignore the previous undertaken.