Nigeria’s former Kogi state governor Yahaya Bello is facing multiple charges of fraud allegedly linked to money laundering and criminal breaches of trust. A social media post shared with an image claims Bello arrived for his most recent court appearance on crutches. However, this is misleading; the image was taken back in 2018 after Bello fell while getting out of a car.
An X account called “Harry” posted a photo of Bello on crutches on December 19, 2024. The caption reads: “Yahaya Bello joins the league ”.
Screenshot of the misleading post, taken December 24, 2024
Public officials facing scrutiny for wrongdoing in Nigeria have previously suffered debilitating illness ahead of court appearances or when being questioned in parliament (archived here).
The post, shared more than 1,300 times, alludes to these past examples as “the league”.
Bello, a two-tenure former governor of north-central Kogi state, is facing separate cases of fraud worth more than 190 billion naira ($123.2 million).
Another Facebook user posted the same picture on December 20, 2024. “How we appeared in court today. The NEWEST ACCIDENT VICTIM…of NIGERIA (sic),” reads the caption, before naming Bello.
The same claim appeared here on Threads, here and here on X and on Instagram.
From office to court
A warrant for Bello’s arrest was issued on April 18, 2024, when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused him of money laundering, breaching trust, and misappropriating 80.2 billion naira (archived here).
He is currently facing 19 counts in the federal high court in Abuja. Justice Emeka Nwite granted bail of 500 million naira on December 13, 2024, and adjourned the matter until February 2025 (archived here).
Bello, however, faces another 16 counts alongside two officials of the Kogi state government regarding the alleged criminal breach of trust amounting to 110 billion naira (archived here).
Trial judge Maryann Anenih also granted Bello bail of 500 million naira on December 19, 2024, and adjourned the case until January 2025 (archived here).
While the claim that Bello showed up in court on crutches became a major talking point on social media, the image was used out of context.
Fall from grace
Using Google Lens to conduct a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check traced the picture to a similar photo in an article published on April 4, 2018, by local news site Sahara Reporters (archived here).
The article, which quoted the former All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman John Odigie Oyegun, explained how internal party issues were reconciled through a meeting by the party governors and the National Working Committee (NWC).
Comparison between the image in the false post (left) and the one used by Sahara Reporters, showing similarities between the two
Bello is wearing the same clothes in the images used by Sahara Reporters and the one featured in the false post, as are his colleagues flanking him.
The floor’s distinctive pattern is also a match in both images.
A day before Sahara Reporters’ article was published, Kingsley Fanwo, Bello’s spokesperson, said the former governor “fell off while alighting from his official car last Friday and injured his left foot” (archived here).
Meanwhile, a video of Bello’s recent court appearance posted online by Nigerian broadcaster ChannelsTV shows him walking around unaided by crutches.
Dramatic appearances
In 2018, the former Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman Olisa Metuh appeared in court on a stretcher during his trial for alleged money laundering worth 400 million naira and cited health complications (archived here).
Metuh was convicted but in December 2020, the Court of Appeal in Abuja nullified the ruling, saying the trial judge Justice Okon Abang was biased. Metuh was released from Kuje Prison on December 24, 2020, after spending about ten months in custody (archived here).
In May 2018, former Kogi senator Dino Melaye was wheeled into the courtroom after purportedly developing health problems while in police custody. He was tried for financial impropriety, including illegal arms possession, surrounding misuse of public funds to the tune of 1.5 billion naira (archived here).
The former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team AbdulRasheed Maina attended court hearings in a wheelchair in 2020, claiming to be in poor health. Pundits saw this as a ploy on his part to delay court proceedings.
He was charged with embezzling public pension funds of more than two billion naira (archived here and here) and was sentenced to eight years in prison in November 2021 (archived here).
