The immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has pleaded not guilty to the 19-count charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The former governor is facing an alleged N80.2 billion money laundering charge slammed against him by the anti-graft agency before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges when read out to him in court.
When the case was called for hearing, on Friday, EFCC’s Counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, informed the Court of the intention of the Prosecution to withdraw an earlier application for abridgement of the earlier date fixed for arraignment.
He said the application had been overtaken by events. The Defendant’s Counsels, led by Joseph Daudu, SAN, did not object and the Judge, accordingly granted the request.
Daudu, applied for the bail of the defendant, whom he assured will be available to face his trial in the alleged money laundering charge preferred against him.
He said Bello is a two-term governor of Kogi state and will not jump bail if granted by the court.
According to Daudu, the defense has been in discussion with the prosecution since the past three days on the issue of bail to ease the burden of the court in determining the ball conditions for the former governor.
The prosecution counsel, Pinheiro confirmed the submissions of the lead counsel for the defense and added that, “We will not be opposing the assurance by the lead senior counsel for the defense”.
The court has gone on break to come back to rule on the application for bail
