N109bn fraud: I was tricked by EFCC to indict myself -Ex AGF

By Andrew Orolua

The former Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) Ahmed Idris, has accused the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) of tricking him into admitting to stealing over N109 billion from public treasury.

The ex-AGF claimed that the EFCC told him they wanted to use him to get at the a former Minister of Finance and some state governors.

Idris and his co-defendants are standing trial on 14 charges of stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109.5 billion.

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Idris was arraigned alongside Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman, and a firm — Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.

But the trial court Judge, Yusuf Halilu had at previous sitting ordered a trial -within- trial following claims by the defendant that his statement were made under duress.

A statement said to be written by Idris and dated May 16, 2022, was partly read out by the prosecution witness, Hayatudeen Ahmed, in court on Thursday.

In the said statement, the ex-AGF had stated that the EFCC promised him that whatever information he gave would not be used against him.

The prosecution witness read the statement after being asked to do so while being cross-examined by Idris’ counsel, Chris Uche (SAN).

After reading the statement, the prosecution witness stated that such assurances were not given, and neither was the defendant under duress.

He said, “There was no such assurance. The statements made by Idris on the 25th, 26th, and 31st of May 2022 and that made on the 1st, 6th, 10th, 20th of June 2022, and 5 July 2022 were made willingly by the defendants contrary to the claims that they were allegedly made under duress by the defendants.”

Earlier, when the hearing commenced on Thursday, the counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs(SAN), applied to tender video evidence that contained a recorded interview of the first to third defendants at the Commission’s Monitoring Unit Chairman’s office as an exhibit before the court.

The prosecution counsel told the court that the video clip sought to be tendered was to counter the claim by the defendants that they were interrogated in the absence of their lawyer and without video recordings in accordance with the Administration Of Criminal Justice Act/Laws.

Counsel for Idris, however, objected to the admissibility of the video clip, noting that it was just sent to him a day before the hearing and that he would need time to know what was contained in the compact disc device sent to him.

Other counsels aligned themselves with Uche’s submission. Justice Yusuf Halilu however. overruled their objections.

The judge said, “Admissibility and value are two different things. A document once admitted can also be useless or otherwise. The defendants did not give reasons the video should not be admitted but complained about the time they were served. This video is hereby admitted as evidence.”

The witness then told the court that there was no deception on the part of investigators while taking statements from the former AGF.

According to him, the video made after investigation established that the first to third defendants benefitted from non-existent consultancy from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Under cross examination by Uche, the witness said lawyers of the three defendants were not present when investigators interviewed them on May 25, 2022.

He admitted that Idris made some of his statements to EFCC in the absence of his lawyer, one Gbenga Adeyemi, while some were made in the presence of the lawyer.

After listening to the cross examination, Justice Halilu adjourned the trial to March 20, 2024.

The trial judge vacated his initial order revoking the bail of Geoffrey Akindele, one of the defendants in the trial.

The defendants are facing 14 charges bordering on diversion of public funds to the tune of N109.5 billion.