Hears How Luxury Mansion Was Bought with Mountain of US Dollars
By SCM Reporter
ABUJA, Nigeria – A JAW-DROPPING multi-billion-pound corruption trial has heard explosive evidence of how luxury mansions were snapped up using mountains of cold, hard American cash.
Former Nigerian regional Governor Yahaya Bello—already a notorious figure in West African politics—is at the centre of a staggering ₦80.2 billion (approx. £38.4 million) money laundering prosecution.
And in a packed courtroom in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Wednesday, a top real estate fixer lifted the lid on the eye-watering scale of the alleged greed.
Property agent and commodity trader Shehu Bello took the stand as a star prosecution witness, painting a vivid picture of high-stakes deals done entirely in the shadows.
He told a stunned Federal High Court how a sprawling luxury property located at the ultra-exclusive No. 1 Ikogosi Spring Close, in Abuja’s billionaire playground of Maitama, was purchased for a cool ₦550 million.
But there were no bank transfers, no paper trails, and no checks. Instead, the court heard the entire fortune was handed over in cash—using US dollar bills.
”We agreed ₦550 million, but it was paid in U.S. dollars in cash,” the agent told Justice Emeka Nwite.
He added with a shrug: “I was also paid my commission in cash.”
The witness revealed he facilitated the mega-deal on behalf of a client, Dr. Faruk Bello. But the shadowy web of property buying didn’t stop there.
The court was told of a dizzying buying spree allegedly linked to the ex-governor’s inner circle, including his close associate Ali Bello.
According to the witness, another property in the Wuse Zone 7 district was snapped up for ₦105 million. The agent also admitted to flipping his own personal property in the upscale Guzape District to Ali Bello for ₦68 million—making a tidy ₦5 million profit in the process.
Earlier in the high-stakes trial, the court heard from top estate surveyor Baba Isa Usman Baffa. He described how Ali Bello marched into a premium shopping mall—the Cityscape Shariff Plaza—and plonked down a massive ₦40 million cash deposit for a prime retail unit, later coughing up a further ₦26 million to seal the deal.
The Bureau de Change and the School Fees Mystery
The trial took a dramatic, tense turn when a currency exchange boss took the stand to face grilling over an alleged $300,000 (£240,000) cash transfer meant for prestigious school fees at the American International School.
Jamilu Abdullahi, a Bureau de Change operator, looked visibly uncomfortable as defence lawyers demanded a simple “yes or no” as to whether he stood by previous explosive statements.
”My Lord, the answer is a little more than yes or no,” Abdullahi stammered from the witness box. “When I explain, I will then answer.”
As tempers flared in the courtroom, lead prosecution counsel Kemi Pinheiro SAN fiercely jumped to the witness’s defence, shouting that he could not be bullied into a corner.
”He cannot be confined… there’s no law that compels him to answer a question,” the top lawyer boomed. “A witness can keep mute. Muteness is an answer!”
The flustered currency trader ultimately claimed he had suffered a sudden bout of amnesia, muttering: “It has been a long time.” He strongly denied defence claims that he was operating an illegal, unlicensed business and feared arrest by Nigeria’s fierce anti-corruption watchdog, the EFCC. “I am a licensed operator,” he fired back.
The high-octane trial has gripped Nigeria, a nation long plagued by allegations of political elites treating public coffers like personal piggy banks.
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has thrown its full weight behind the prosecution, determined to lock up the former governor over the missing billions.
As defence lawyers scrambled to block key written confessions from being admitted into evidence, the prosecution defiantly withdrew the paperwork to prevent the defence from using delaying tactics.
Justice Nwite adjourned the blockbuster trial until Thursday, May 7, 2026.