A former Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, on Wednesday told an Abuja High Court that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) failed to tender all the statements he made in their office.
Idris, in his evidence in the trial-within-a-trial ordered by the court following the objection raised by his counsel, Chris Uche SAN, to the admissibility of his statements as exhibits, mentioned the three statements he made on the consultancy in question.
The trial-within-a-trial was on the grounds that the former AGF’s statements the prosecution sought to tender on November 23, 2022, were made on the grounds of deception and inducement.
The EFCC charged the former AGF alongside Geoffrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited with 14 counts, bordering on theft and fraudulent diversion of public funds to the tune of N109.5bn.
They are being prosecuted by the EFCC before Justice Yusuf Halilu in the case marked FCT/HC/CR/199/2022.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Idris testified for himself in the trial-within-trial. “Apart from the 13 statements brought to court by EFCC, I made a total of 16 statements on different days in the course of the investigation,” he told me in court.
Led in evidence by Uche, Idris informed the court that he was taken to the procurement unit of the EFCC three times and that he made statements on those occasions about the consultancy in question and the entire processes involved in the matter.
Three files were brought, marked certified true copies, to the head of the procurement unit.
”I mentioned that the minister (of Finance) approved the consultancy and that the Federation Account Allocation Committee, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation Commission, and the oil-producing state governors were all involved.
“I am surprised that all three statements were not brought to court, including the rules with the certified true copies,” he said.
Idris told the court that his lawyer was not present when he made the statements to EFCC on June 10, 2022, June 27, 2022, and July 5, 2022, respectively.
He denied writing any of the cautionary words in the respective statements, adding that the statements were dictated to him by EFCC investigators.
“It is not correct that I made the statement in the presence of my lawyer, Mr Gbenga Adeyemi. The statement is a dictation.
“None of my written statements were video recorded by my interrogators,” he said.
After his evidence, Halilu adjourned the matter until July 17 for cross-examination of the former AGF by the prosecution in the trial-within-a-trial.
