Besides his position as Kogi’s first citizen for eight years, other things about ex-Gov. Yahaya Bello only thrummed in the background. Until his over N80-billion money-laundering shit hit the fan.
And the revelation contrasts with its lily-white personae.
Here are a couple of things to know about the former governor turned fugitive:
- Bello contested, lost the state’s guber primary, but, somehow, inherited his party’s guber victory at 40. He spent eight years in office.
- Most things about him appeared in white or shades of white. He called himself White Lion; and he decked out mostly in white babringa
- When he contested for his first term, he faced up to Bola Tinubu, then APC’s national leader, who wanted to job in his boy Hon James Faleke. Now the White Lion is at the mercy of Tinubu, incidentally another Lion—of Bourdillon.
- Yahaya Bello contested the APC presidential primary election with Tinubu and about a dozen others in 2023. He promised to tackle corruption, and bring youth into governance.
- After his loss, and towards the end of his tenure, Bello made a play for the APC national chairmanship. The ambition withered within his inner circle.
- He became the first APC former governor to show a clean pair of heels before his trial ever started.