By SHEDDY OZOENE
The expansive headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Jabi, Abuja, deserves to have a wing for circuses. The building is so imposing that the mere sight should frighten the crime-minded, but behind the façade lies a clay-footed anti-graft agency that enjoys playing to the gallery and displaying the absurd. Over the years, it has witnessed many spectacular acts of triviality but on the watch of Olukayode Olanipekun, unnecessary ego now drives its policies and operations.
Nowhere has this absurdity played out more than in its lousy handling of the case involving Yahaya Bello, the former governor of Kogi State. The timid handling of Bello, a wanted man who visited its headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, last Wednesday, was not only scandalous, it shows that the Commission now takes the sensibilities of Nigerians for granted.
The EFCC had, last April, declared Bello wanted after he failed to appear for arraignment on N80.2 billion money laundering charges. Instead of responding to the charges, the former governor who had boasted that he was ready to face any inquisition into his tenure in office, preferred to take the agency on a long ride. ‘The White Lion’ holed up for months, literally under the bed of his successor in office, Governor Ahmed Ododo somewhere in Lugard House, seat of the state government in Lokoja, from where he occasionally sneaks out of town and into his Abuja mansion.
The most spirited attempt to arrest him later that month in Abuja was thwarted by Governor Ododo who deployed his official vehicles and security details to Bello’s Abuja home to rescue him and drive him out of the city. Bello returned to his hide-out in Lokoja even though many say he has severally been sighted in the nation’s capital as well as his native Okene. Though the EFCC declared him wanted, placed him on the watch list, got all security agencies to mount a manhunt for him and placed him on INTERPOL red alert, the cat and mouse game has lasted all of six months.
So, when last Wednesday, September 18, 2024, Bello walked into the EFCC headquarters in Abuja, the public heaved a sigh of relief; at last the man whom many swear would lead the EFCC to the whereabouts of far more than the N80 billion that allegedly developed wings on his watch as governor, would be in custody. But rather than arrest and clamp him in detention for interrogation and onward arraignment, the EFCC Chairman simply waved him away.
Olanipekun
Why did the EFCC refuse to arrest a man who was publicly advertised as a felon running from the law; a man it has told every other agency to arrest on sight?
The agency said it rejected the method by which Bello reported to the commission. Upon realising that Bello came with the Kogi state governor, the EFCC Chairman directed that no official should attend to him. Olanipekun’s grouse is that Bello by-passed documentation formalities and instead of coming with his lawyer, ‘breached the EFCC protocol’ by coming for an invitation in a convoy of vehicles and with a sitting governor. And so it allowed Bello who spent three hours loitering within the EFCC premises to return to his luxurious car and drive off!
Are these enough reasons to ask a wanted felon to drive off? Agreed that the EFCC also did not invite the governor, was his mere presence within its premises enough to thwart a legitimate arrest of Bello?
Olanipekin’s action was absurd, to say the least, and he needs to explain that to Nigerians. Ironically, not long after Bello drove away, his agency shamelessly issued a statement to dispel media reports that the former governor was in its custody. It also reiterated that the man it had declared wanted for over half a year, and who was sighted in its premises earlier in the day “remains wanted with a subsisting warrant for his arrest”. Nothing can be more shamefully self-indicting.
The truth is that Olukayode Olanipekun who was in his office when Bello drove into the premises in an executive convoy, felt humiliated that the felon he had tried unsuccessfully to arrest in Abuja and Lokoja, surrendered to the EFCC on his own, and with cameras flashing. To make matters worse, Bello had primed the media to report his trip to the EFCC himself. It was too much of a humiliation for the EFCC chairman, and as his ego took over him, he bluntly refused to order Bello’s arrest or to see him. He holed up in his office upstairs while Bello chatted with his Chief of Staff and other sundry staff for all of three hours.
Rather than arrest him within the EFCC premises, Olanipekun was said to have told his aides that he preferred to humiliate Bello with a public arrest anytime, anywhere.
What arrogance!
Minutes after Bello’s departure, he mobilized over 30 operatives for his second attempt at arresting Bello, this time at the Kogi State Lodge in Asokoro later that night. After several gunshots and what could have ended in a bloodbath at the Governor’s Lodge, he failed again as common sense prevailed and the EFCC operatives were asked to withdraw.
Today, as Yahaya Bello still walks free, the cost of feeding Olanipekun’s fat ego can only be imagined. For the many who believe the Tinubu administration only pays lip service to the fight against corruption, last week’s incident is a good example.
The question is: does the EFCC Chairman still expect other security agencies to cooperate with his agency by arresting Bello wherever he is sighted?
Indeed, the EFCC Chairman has a lot to explain to Nigerians. Were all the spectacle necessary? Why was he prepared to put his operatives in harm’s way in a situation that was clearly avoidable? More importantly, when did his personal ego become part of the EFCC operational policy?
Sheddy Ozoene is the Editor-In-Chief of People&Politics.
