ABUJA— A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, sitting at Maitama, on Thursday, summoned the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to appear before it on October 24.

Trial Justice Maryanne Anenih ordered the former governor to appear before the court to enter his plea to the fresh 16-count charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against him.

Bello was charged alongside two others- Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu- for engaging in criminal breach of trust to the tune of N110.4billion.

The defendants were originally scheduled to take their plea on Thursday.

However, when the matter was called up, the EFCC told the court that every effort to serve a copy of the charge it filed on September 24, on the former governor, proved abortive.

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Consequently, Justice Anenih, in a ruling, issued a public summons to compel the former Kogi state governor to voluntarily appear before the court on the next adjourned date for his arraignment.

The court directed the anti-graft agency to publish the public summons in a widely circulating national daily.

It further ordered the EFCC to past copies of the public summons on Bello’s last known address and in conspicuous places within the court premises.