Abuja, Nigeria – The trial of former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello, resumed before Justice Maryanne Anineh of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, Abuja on Wednesday, with fresh testimony on the movement of public funds through multiple bank accounts.
Olomotane Egoro, a compliance officer with Access Bank and the tenth prosecution witness (PW10), told the court that a loan of ₦2.1 billion was disbursed to Keyless Nature Limited on December 14, 2021. Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, the witness confirmed that the loan was utilised. He further disclosed that repayments made between January and May 2022, including interest, were funded through credits traced to various Kogi State local government accounts. According to him, repayments were consistently made on the 14th of each month up to December 2022, with the pattern showing that the funds originated from Kogi LGAs.
Okay News learnt that the witness also gave evidence regarding Westwood Limited’s account, stating that a principal loan of over ₦818 million was disbursed in March 2018. He revealed that in April and May 2020, multiple cash deposits were made by several individuals at the Lokoja branch of Access Bank to repay the loan, despite the account being domiciled at the bank’s National Assembly branch in Abuja.
Egoro further testified about transactions linked to the Kogi State Government House account, noting frequent inflows followed by immediate withdrawals. He told the court that large cash withdrawals — often in tranches of ₦10 million — were made by named individuals, including Aminu Jimoh Olarenwaju and Abdulsalami Hudu. In one instance, he said the bank filed a Suspicious Transaction Report with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit over a transaction that did not align with the customer’s profile. The trial continues.
