N110.4 billion fraud: Yahaya Bello loses offer to travel abroad for medical care – Thage

By Victor Osula, Abuja

The high court of the territory of the federal capital sitting in Maitama, Abuja, has published a application presented by the former governor of Kogi, Yahaya Bello, looking for the temporary release of his international passport to allow him to travel abroad for medical care.

Feeling the question of Thursday, judge Maryann Annih said the court was not in possession of the Bello passport.

Beautiful, together with two others, he is pursued by the Commission for economic and financial crimes (EFCC) for the alleged undue appropriation of public funds equal to n110.4 billion during his mandate as a governor of the state of Kogi.

In the motion dated June 19th and presented on June 20, Bello, through his legal team led by Joseph Daudu (San), prayed to the court for an order for the release of his international passport.

In a security declaration of support of 22 paragraphs presented next to a medical report and a letter of appointment by his doctor abroad, Bello’s consultant, Daudu claimed that the request had been presented for 13 legal reasons, noting that the Court had, in a previous sentence of December 2024, declared that if the accused needed to travel, he could have approached the Court through a formal application. He stressed that the sentence did not expressly exclude foreign trips nor have they entered into specific conditions for such a trip.

While the EFCC opposed the defense question, the Commission, through its legal team led by Kemi Pinheiro (San), described the defense application as an abuse of the judicial trial

“The passport that tried to be released is not before this court,” said the anti-innesto agency, while questioning the authenticity and credibility of the medical documents presented. He said that the medical report was signed by a doctor other than the one who issued the appointment and that the relationship did not include the qualifications of the signature doctor. He fired him as “a valueless document”.

The Commission prayed to the Court to allow Bello to look for care in the state of Kogi, where according to what reported he commissioned an ultra-modern reference hospital designed to reduce medical tourism.

Citing the international size of the case, including the accusations of money laundering, the accusation warned that allowing the beautiful to leave the country could jeopardize the process.

Thursday, judge Annih stressed that the court was not in possession of the Bello passport. The judge said that even if the request to recover the travel passport should be granted, he would have no effect since the passport was not in custody of the court, but before the judge Emeka Nwite of the Federal Court.

As a result, the application was eliminated while judge Anenih postponed the case of the fraud trial against the former governor on 8 October, 9 and 13 November 2025, for the continuation of the hearing.

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