On Thursday, July 17, 2025, Justice Maryanne Anineh of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Maitama, Abuja, dismissed an application filed by former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello, seeking the release of his passport to travel to the United Kingdom for medical treatment.
Bello is currently standing trial alongside Umar Shuaibu Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu before Justice Anineh on a 16-count charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which includes allegations of criminal breach of trust and money laundering totaling N110.4 billion.
At the previous hearing, Bello, through his lawyer, J.B. Daudu, SAN, submitted an application dated June 19 and filed on June 20, 2025, requesting temporary access to his passport to attend a scheduled medical appointment in the UK. He pledged to return the passport to the court afterward.
However, prosecution counsel Chukwudi Enebeli, SAN, opposed the request, urging the court to deny the application because it sought to modify the bail conditions, which required Bello to surrender his passport.
Enebeli also argued that Bello’s sureties should have been notified to confirm whether they remained willing to act as sureties if he were allowed to leave the country. Additionally, he pointed out that the defendant had previously filed a similar application in another court, which was still pending, describing it as an abuse of the court process.
