ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency took Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore national president Bello Bodejo into custody Friday shortly after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission released him following the fulfillment of court-imposed bail conditions, according to his family and local reports. Bodejo was taken from outside the EFCC headquarters in Abuja and moved to the Department of State Services headquarters, his family said. The DSS had not publicly announced the legal basis for the new detention as of Saturday.
Bodejo’s wife, Hauwa Bodejo, said relatives had gone to the EFCC offices expecting to take him home after his lawyers completed the bail process. She said DSS personnel were waiting near the premises and “rushed towards my husband and suddenly whisked him away” as the family prepared to leave. The family questioned whether the detention complied with due process and also raised concerns about Bodejo’s health, alleging that his personal physician had been unable to see him during much of his detention. The DSS had not publicly responded to those allegations.
Bodejo is facing a 12-count federal money-laundering prosecution involving millions of dollars in alleged cash transactions. He pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned July 9 before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja. Prosecutors allege that he received large cash payments from Sa’idu Abubakar, a former accountant-general of Bauchi state, without routing the transactions through financial institutions as required by Nigerian anti-money-laundering laws. On July 20, the court granted Bodejo bail of 2 billion naira, requiring a surety with property of the same value in Abuja, a three-year tax clearance certificate and other conditions. His passport was also ordered surrendered to the court.
The circumstances surrounding Friday’s detention remain unclear. During Bodejo’s July arraignment, an EFCC prosecutor opposed bail and told the court that the DSS was “on the lookout for him,” although authorities did not publicly detail the intelligence agency’s interest at the time. His criminal trial is scheduled to begin in October. A fresh detention by another security agency does not itself cancel his bail in the EFCC case, but any separate detention would require its own legal justification under Nigerian law, an issue likely to draw scrutiny from his lawyers and rights advocates.
Bodejo has had previous confrontations with Nigerian security agencies. He was arrested in January 2024 after his organization unveiled a Fulani vigilante group in Nasarawa state and was later arraigned on terrorism-related charges accusing him of establishing an unlawful ethnic militia. He denied the charges, which were withdrawn in May 2024 at the direction of the attorney general, leading the court to discharge him. Bodejo was detained again later that year by security authorities, and in December 2024 an Abuja court ordered the DSS, also known as the State Security Service, to release him after finding that his continued detention without charge was unlawful.
The latest case carries significance beyond Bodejo because Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore is an influential Fulani pastoralist organization in Nigeria, where disputes involving grazing land, farming communities and armed violence have become major political and security issues. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is also under continuing domestic and international pressure to combat terrorism, corruption and organized crime while ensuring that security operations comply with constitutional protections and court orders. Bodejo’s repeated arrests and releases are therefore likely to renew debate over the balance between national security investigations and the rule of law
