A fresh petition before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has accused the former Governor Kogi State, Mr. Yahaya Bello and his successor Usman Ododo, of conniving with others to either loot or misappropriate over N300 billion statutory allocations to the 21 local governments areas of the State between May 2016a and January 2024.
On Wednesday, operatives of the EFCC had stormed Bello’s residence in Abuja in an attempt to arrest him over an ongoing fraud investigation. But Ododo arrived the former Governor’s residence and helped him to evade arrest by smuggling him out.
However, the fresh petition listed all the 21 immediate past local government chairmen – who served during Bello’s tenure as governor – as co-conspirators in the alleged looting of the over N300billion LG funds.
The petition signed by a group known as Kogi Conscience claimed that in 2016, N23.1billion was received as Kogi Local Government Allocations and in 2018, N43.6billion was received. In 2019, N41.1billion was received while in 2020, N34.4billion was received as local government allocation from the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission.
The group added that in 2021, N44.7billion was received while in 2023, N73.1billion was received from the RMFC for local governments areas of the State.
At the time the over N300billion was looted, the current Governor, Usman Ododo served as the Auditor General for local governments, hence the group said he supervised the misappropriation and looting of the billions.
