THE INSIDER: How ‘soft landing’ deal for Yahaya Bello went bust at EFCC car park

What was supposed to be a “soft landing” deal for Yahaya Bello, immediate-past governor of Kogi state, to end his protracted face-off with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) went awry at the car park of the anti-graft agency on Wednesday morning.

Usman Ododo, his successor, had negotiated the deal for Bello with some senior officials of the Bola Tinubu administration — under which the former governor would return some state funds traced to him in exchange for a plea bargain, insiders told TheCable.

TheCable could not confirm the full terms of the negotiation, but the anti-graft agency was still expected to charge Bello to court regardless, even if for lesser offences.

Armed with what he thought was a sealed deal, Ododo took Bello from Lokoja, the Kogi state capital where he had been hiding for months, to Abuja on Tuesday, and accompanied him to the EFCC headquarters on Wednesday.

TheCable understands that Ododo used his status as a sitting governor to gain entrance into the EFCC premises without formalities, following which he announced that Bello was there to honour the invitation the commission sent to him after he left office in January 2024.

A SERIES OF DRAMATIC EVENTS

The development was expected to end the saga, which had seen Nigerian authorities issue a Red Notice to Interpol after the former governor was declared wanted.

However, it turned out that Ola Olukoyede, the EFCC chairman, did not appear to be in on the deal.

When Ododo called Michael Nzekwe, chief of staff to the EFCC chairman, on the phone to announce Bello’s arrival, Nzekwe told the governor that his boss was not around, as the commission was not aware they were coming.

Insiders told TheCable that Nzekwe asked them to leave, promising to get back to them as soon as the coast was clear.

By this time, Ohiare Michael, Bello’s aide, had issued a press statement announcing that his principal had “honoured the EFCC invitation”.

Insiders in both camps told TheCable different versions of what happened next.

According to Bello’s associates, the entourage had spent four hours within the EFCC premises before Nzekwe told them to leave and return when the chairman would be in the office.

They contended that the chairman did not need to personally receive Bello as the EFCC has institutional processes to handle those invited for interrogation.

“You declared a man wanted and he voluntarily submitted himself only for you to turn him back,” one of Bello’s associates told TheCable.

“That would suggest that there was something personal about the whole investigation. If you felt too many people came with Bello, all you needed to do was ask for only Bello and his lawyers to be allowed to enter the office.

“The EFCC was not happy he came voluntarily. They would prefer to arrest and handcuff him for a media show. That was why they came back at night to the Kogi governor’s lodge in Asokoro and started shooting. Bello has always believed somebody wants him dead and the shooting confirms his suspicion. They could have killed him.”

‘PROTOCOLS BREACHED’

The version of events from sources at EFCC is however slightly different.

After Bello’s entourage left, EFCC issued a statement clarifying that Bello was not in its custody — with reports curiously emerging online that the former governor was actually arrested the previous night by the commission.

The reports turned out not to be true.

“First, there are processes for taking in suspects and interrogating them. There are established protocols. None of this was followed. What the governor tried to do was employ intimidation by using his immunity status to railroad the EFCC into acting his script,” an insider told TheCable.

“When Ododo saw that we were not falling for it, he started shouting that they would not leave the EFCC premises. Nobody invited Ododo to the EFCC. It was only Bello that was invited. By intimidating our officials, Ododo thought he could have his way. He probably wanted to be in the interrogation room with his benefactor.”

The thinking in EFCC, as insiders told TheCable, was that only Bello and his lawyers should be allowed in to avoid interference by Ododo — and that was why they were asked to leave, although Olukayode was, indeed, not in the office.

They were asked to return with the unspoken instruction that only Bello and his lawyers would gain entrance and they would have to go through the protocol of filling forms and dropping their phones, among others.

TheCable understands that the EFCC hierarchy was also riled by the viral image taken of Ododo and Bello arriving at EFCC headquarters as photography is strictly prohibited within its premises.

WHO FIRED THE FIRST SHOT?

When Olukoyede eventually returned to the office, he asked his chief of staff to invite Bello back to the commission since he appeared to be no longer on the run.

Nzekwe went to the Kogi governor’s lodge late afternoon to deliver his principal’s message.

What happened next is, again, narrated differently by both sides.

On Thursday morning, Bello’s media office said EFCC operatives had come the previous night to forcefully take away the former governor, blocking the road and firing gunshots.

EFCC’s officials said, rather, that it was Ododo’s security team that started firing gunshots into the air on seeing the commission’s vehicle.

“EFCC operatives responded in kind,” an EFCC insider told TheCable.

While the melee ensued, Bello slipped out of the lodge and exited Abuja, leaving the EFCC empty-handed.

Amid the drama, accusations and counter-claims, the big fish that presented himself on a platter to the EFCC early Wednesday morning — and was turned back — has now disappeared into the ocean, temporarily off the hook.