The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has charged Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore leader, Bello Bodejo, with money laundering involving funds he allegedly received from the Bauchi State Government.
A statement from EFCC’s Head, Media & Publicity, Dele Oyewale, on Wednesday, said the commission filed 12 counts of money laundering against Mr Bodejo on Monday at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
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According to the commission, Mr Bodejo received and possessed large sums of cash in foreign currency linked to “proceeds of unlawful activities in contravention of the Money Laundering (Prevention & Prohibition) Act, 2011.”
The charges alleged that Mr. Bodejo, whom the commission linked to Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, took a total of $2.53 million under shady circumstances.
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“Bodejo, linked to Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, is expected to take his plea before the court in the coming days as the Commission commences formal proceedings,” the statement said.
The transactions at the heart of the charges appear to be central to ongoing money laundering and terrorism financing trial of some Bauchi State Government officials, including the Commissioner for Finance, Yakubu Adamu, before the Federal High Court in Abuja. Mr Bodejo was charged before the same court, but it is not clear yet if the case will be assigned to the same judge.
On 30 December 2025, the EFCC charged Mr Adamu and three civil servants in the state with terrorism financing and sundry money laundering offences for the funds released to Mr Bodejo and others.
Mr Adamu’s co-defendants, whom the prosecution described as Bauchi State civil servants and signatories to the state government’s accounts and/or payment instruments, are Balarabe Ilelah, Aminu Mohammed Bose and Kabiru Mohammed.
PREMIUM TIMES detailed the transactions and the unusual circumstances of the payments in a report in January.
The report, which reviewed the Bauchi State Government’s records, extra-judicial statements and other documents filed in support of the charges instituted against the state government officials, detailed how a total of $2.33 million was disbursed in cash to Mr Bodejo in four tranches across four months, between 2023 and 2024.
But Mr Bodejo was not charged alongside the defendants in the case.
The new case filed solely against Mr Bodejo shares more details, which traced the suspicious financial dealings between Mr Bodejo and the Bauchi State Government to 2022.
Some of the charges
The first of the 12 counts brought by the EFCC said, on 11 January 2022, Mr Bodejo “did knowingly and willfully, without lawful authority or excuse,” accepted a payment of $100,000 “in physical currency from one SA’IDU ABUBAKAR, a former Accountant-General Bauchi State who is currently in the lawful custody of the Nigerian Police Force”.
The commission said Mr Bodejo received the money “without routing the said transaction through a financial institution as required by law, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 16(1)(d) of the Money Laundering Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.”
The charge alleged that the $100,000 cash allegedly received by Mr Bodejo, “exceeded the statutory cash transaction threshold of Five Million Naira (N5,000,000.00) prescribed under Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended).”
The second count also alleged that a similar transaction took place on 21 January 2022, when Mr Bodejo allegedly received “knowingly and willfully, without lawful authority or excuse” accepted cash payment of $200,000 in physical currency from Mr Abubakar, the former Accountant-General of Bauchi State.
Another count alleged that, on 20 March 2024, Mr Bodejo received $500,000 from Mr Abubakar under the same circumstances.
EFCC also said in another count that the defendant took $980,000 cash from Mr Abubakar on 7 February 2024.
Some of the charges said Mr Bodejo took possession of the various sums running into $2.53 million “under circumstances in which he either knew, or reasonably ought to have known, that the funds were proceeds of unlawful activity, specifically money laundering.”
The conduct allegedly constitutes an offence under Section 18(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and is punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act, which prescribes an imprisonment for a term of at least four years but not more than 14 years, or to a fine of at least five times the value of the proceeds of the crime, or to both.
All the alleged offences are punishable under various provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended), and the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
What PREMIUM TIMES reported before new charges
PREMIUM TIMES reported in January that Mr Bodejo, who has had run-ins with Nigeria’s security and intelligence community, benefitted from large scale disbursements by the Bauchi State Government, which, at the time, described the payouts in records seen by our reporters as “security commitment” .
Mr Bodejo reportedly spent about six months cumulatively in detention in 2024 and briefly faced terrorism charges within the year before the Attorney-General of the Federation’s office withdrew the case without giving reasons.
The Bauchi State Government, according to its records seen by PREMIUM TIMES and agents, disbursed a total of $2.33 million to him in four tranches across four months, between 2023 and 2024.
In July 2024, the Accountant-General of Bauchi State, Sa’idu Abubakar, issued a memo to Governor Bala Mohammed, through the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), for the “regularisation” of the disbursements already carried out from January to July 2024.
The amount captured in the memo totalled nearly $17 million ($16,985,000) and N75.2 million released to individuals, including Mr Bodejo, between January and July 2024.
Ongoing related trial
The EFCC is prosecuting Mr Adamu, the state’s commissioner for finance, and his co-defendants regarding the funds released to Mr Bodejo.
On 31 December 2025, the EFCC charged Mr Adamu and three civil servants in the state with terrorism financing and sundry money laundering offences for the funds released to Mr Bodejo and others.
The charges accused them of releasing $2.33 million belonging to the state government to a Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore leader, Bello Bodejo, and other persons who allegedly used the cash, partly or wholly, to finance an alleged terrorist or terrorist group. The defendants allegedly released the funds to Mr Bodejo between January and May 2024.
The prosecution also alleged that nearly $7 million belonging to the state government was released for Mr Adamu’s benefit in a money laundering scheme.
Judge Emeka Nwite, who briefly handled the case during the court’s Christmas/New Year vacation, rejected the defendants’ bail application in a ruling on 5 January, citing the gravity of the charges against them and the social implications of approving their release from custody while they were on terrorism-related trial.
Mr Nwite quitted the case on 14 January and returned the case file to the chief judge for reassignment to a new judge upon the court’s resumption from vacation.
However, on 21 January, the new judge who was reassigned the case, Mohammed Umar, granted bail to the defendants, shifting away from Mr Nwite’s earlier decision denying them bail less than three weeks earlier.
