By Olawale Olaleye
Late Wednesday night, September 18th, a serving official of the Kogi State Government, occupying a key office with legal responsibilities, had requested to see the EFCC chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede. Unsuspecting of any foul play or mischief, more so as a younger colleague in the legal profession, it would have been against public interest to turn him down.
Politely, he gave him an early morning appointment for the next day, Thursday, September 19th, since the fellow claimed it was “very important.” The next thing the EFCC chairman saw on the morning of the appointment was a wanted man in company with a serving governor, invading his office with a retinue of security aides and without any prior notice.
Hell no, a wanted man would stroll into my office in this manner, not after all that he had taken the agency through, the anti-graft boss must have thought to himself. You will either give him up here and leave, or we’d have him arrested our own way at the most auspicious time, officials of the EFCC told the clownish duo and their jesters from Kogi.
That a serving governor, who knew what was at stake, allegedly sought to breach EFCC’s SOP by insisting he’d accompany his wanted benefactor to the interrogation room with his security aides present, left the agency with no option than to turn them back. What an abuse of immunity by Usman Ododo!
It was why the EFCC refused to acknowledge that Yahaya Bello ever visited its office in the first place, and on the other hand, would rather his men arrested him, a decision which led to the drama that played out later that day at the governor’s lodge, where the former governor had been holed up since he left office. Maybe that should never have happened. Just maybe!
But Bello and his minion governor thought they were smart and wanted to pull a fast one on the agency. Had the EFCC attended to him and Ododo successfully took him back home, they would have established a good ground for bail in his next court appearance by dismissing the suspicion that he is a flight risk.
While everyone could interpret the action of the EFCC as they so deem fit, as many had already queried why the agency didn’t arrest and detain him when he walked into their premises, that the EFCC, too, insisted on treating a suspected criminal as one is equally a genuine decision.
Unfortunately, the role being played by Ododo to subvert justice and the rule of law is interesting, coming from a governor, who swore to protect the constitution of the country. There’s no doubt that the Kogi governor is already consciously creating his own dossier of crimes with all the security agencies, EFCC inclusive and at the right time, he’d be taken through his file, page after page.
To say that the Yahaya Bello case is an embarrassment to the nation is being mild with the tone. This is why the custodians of the nation’s jurisprudence must do all to save the system as far as his case is concerned, but without infringing on his rights. It is one mess too many, and no corners must be cut in driving the case to its logical close.
Although the Yahaya Bello media machine appears to be having a field day with its criminal indulgence, it is important an average Nigerian understands that protecting the EFCC and letting it do its work is a responsibility, and not favour or privilege. A damage to this critical agency is damage to the nation’s image as well.
Bello is not bigger than any institution, for starters. He may be the “demon” in Kogi politics and government, but the method to their collective madness must be tamed before it is transferred to the already tottering national stable. That infantile show at the EFCC office on Thursday was, at best, a demure of criminality by a mere felon.
Olawale Olaleye lives in Lagos.