The Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has told of the phone conversation he had with fugitive, ex-governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.
The latter is facing prosecution at the hands of the EFCC over alleged N80.2billion fraud while he held sway as governor.
Consequently Bello has been on the run in bid to evade arrest.
It came to a head when EFCC operatives traced him to his Abuja residence and at the point of arresting him, his successor, Gov. Usman Ododo, made him escaped.
The said incident led the commission to declare him wanted while the Nigeria Immigration Service placed him on its watchlist, with the police authorities recalling the security details hitherto attached to him.
Speaking on the saga during an interactive programme with editors and bureau chiefs in Abuja on Tuesday, Olukoyede said he would pull all the stops to ensure the former governor is brought to book.
The EFCC boss in the course of talking about the issue went into how he put a call through to the fugitive, saying, “I called Yahaya Bello, as a serving governor, to come to my office to clear himself. I shouldn’t have done that. But he said because a certain senator had planted over 100 journalists in my office, he would not come.
“I told him that he would be allowed to use my private gate to give him a cover, but he said my men should come to his village to interrogate him.”
Olukoyede also said, “We would have gone after him since January but we waited for the court order. As early as 7 am, my men were there; over 50 of them. They mounted surveillance. We met over 30 armed policemen there. We would have exchanged fire and there would have been casualties.
“My men were about to move in when the governor of Kogi drove in and they later changed the narrative.”
