A witness in the N109.5 billion fraud trial of former Accountant-General of the Federation Ahmed Idris told the FCT High Court in Abuja on Wednesday that she signed a statement written by Mr Idris while in custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2022 because she was assured he would be released.
The witness, Hajiya Safiya Idris, who regarded Mr Idris as a father figure, testified before Judge Yusuf Halilu in the ongoing trial-within-trial ordered to determine whether statements made by Mr Idris to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were obtained voluntarily.
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Mr Idris’ lawyers closed their case in the trial-within-trial with Ms Idris’ testimony on Wednesday, prompting the trial judge to set 13 October for adoption of final written addresses regarding the disputed statements.
The statement signed by Ms Idris and others written by Mr Idris during his detention at EFCC’s office in Abuja in the wake of investigations into the N109 billion fraud allegations against him are subject of the trial-within-trial, an offshoot of the main trial that has been on pause since November 2022 for the trial-within trial to be concluded.
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On 10 June 2022, EFCC arrested Mr Idris, the then-accountant-general of the federation, in Kano, Kano State, where he hails from, and flew him to Abuja for investigations. He was subsequently charged alongside co-defendants with theft.
Mr Idris is being prosecuted alongside Geoffrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited on 14 counts of stealing and fraudulent diversion of N109.5 billion in public funds.
The EFCC was presenting its evidence to support its case when court ordered the trial-within-trial on 22 November 2022 following claims by Mr Idris’ lawyer, Chris Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), that statements made by his client to the EFCC were obtained through deception and inducement.
Why I signed ex-accountant-general’s statement – Witness
At Wednesday’s proceedings, Mr Uche informed the court that the defence had a witness to present.
Led in evidence by her lawyer, Chris Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Hajiya Safiya Idris identified herself as a resident of Efab Estate, Guzape, Abuja. According to a statement issued on Wednesday by EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale, the witness told the court that she had a long-standing relationship with Mr Idris and regarded him “like a father.”
Recounting events of 6 June 2022, the witness said she visited the EFCC headquarters in Abuja to see the former Accountant-General of the Federation but was initially informed that he was not in the detention facility.
According to her, she was told that Mr Idris was in the main building and waited for a long time before she was eventually allowed into the office where he was.
She said two EFCC officers, identified as Hayatu and Mahmud, asked her to sign as a witness to a statement authored by Mr Idris.
When shown the statement in court, she confirmed that both the signature and handwriting on the document were hers.
The witness said she wrote that the statement was taken in her presence because she had been assured that Mr Idris would be released.
Cross-examination
Responding to questions from prosecution lawyer Oluwaleke Atolagbe, Ms Idris admitted that she was neither invited nor investigated by the EFCC and that she visited the commission on her own.
She also alleged that Mr Idris had already completed the statement before she was allowed into the office and that she only signed after it had been concluded.
Asked whether the defendant knew she was at the EFCC before she entered the office, the witness answered in the negative and said he only became aware of her presence when she was invited in to sign the document.
Mr Atolagbe also drew her attention to a portion of the 6 June 2022 statement which stated: “In addition to my last statement, I wish to state that I am writing this statement in the presence of Hajiya Idris Safiya.”
Asked whether that portion was written before she entered the interrogation room, the witness said she did not know at what stage it was written.
She also confirmed that her name did not appear on any of the defendant’s other statements because she was not present when they were taken.
Responding to further questions, Ms Idris admitted that she did not lodge any complaint after signing the statement and agreed that she was under no obligation to write anything for the EFCC because she was not under investigation.
She, however, maintained that she was not lying when she wrote that the statement was taken in her presence.
Following the conclusion of her testimony, the witness was discharged.
Mr Uche subsequently informed the court that the defence was closing its case in the trial-within-trial.
Judge Halilu thereafter adjourned the matter until 13 October for adoption of final written addresses.
Background
Mr Idris served as Accountant-General of the Federation from June 2015 until his suspension in May 2022 following an EFCC investigation into the alleged diversion of public funds. He was replaced in an acting capacity before a substantive successor was appointed.
The EFCC later arraigned him alongside Geoffrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited before the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja in July 2022 on 14 charges including alleged diversion of N109.5 billion. The defendants pleaded not guilty.
On 22 November 2022, the judge ordered a trial-within-trial, after Mr Idris, through his lawyer, challenged the admissibility of statements he made to EFCC investigators. The defence argued that the statements were obtained through inducement and deception, while the prosecution insisted they were voluntary.
During the trial-within-trial, the prosecution called EFCC investigators who denied claims that Mr Idris was promised immunity or induced to make statements.
Specifically, on 26 June 2024, Abdulhamid Isa Muri, an EFCC official from the commission’s Kano office, testified as the prosecution’s third witness in the trial-within-trial being conducted to determine the voluntariness of an extrajudicial statement Mr Idris gave in June 2022.
The defence later opened its case and called witnesses to support its challenge to the statements, including officials connected to the Office of the Accountant-General.
In April, a retired Director of Legal Services in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Haruna Alabi, testified as a witness for Mr Idris. He said he signed a statement written on 17 May 2022 by Mr Idris in EFCC custody.
“As our former boss, we wanted to show empathy,” Mr Alabi told the court during cross-examination by EFCC’s lawyer.
As the defence closed its case in the trial-within-trial on Wednesday after calling its final witness, Ms Idris, the court is now expected to determine, after final written addresses, whether the disputed statements were voluntarily made and admissible in the substantive N109.5 billion fraud trial.
Charges and recoveries
The EFCC alleged in the charges that Mr Idris and his co-defendants committed the alleged N109 billion fraud between February and December 2021.
It alleged Mr Idris accepted from Olusegun Akindele, a gratification of N15 billion as a motive for accelerating the payment of 13 per cent derivation to the nine (9) oil producing Sates in the Federation, through the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
It also alleged that N84,390,000,00 from the federal government’s account was converted by the first and second defendants between February and November 2021.
The EFCC said the offence contravenes Section 155 and 315 of the Penal Code Act Cap 532 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the allegations against them.
In December 2022, EFCC obtained a court order for an interim forfeiture of assets, including $899,900, N304,490,160.95, and 15 properties in Kano and Abuja linked to the alleged crimes. Mr Idris hails from Kano.
EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, announced at an event in Abuja in December 2022 that the commission had recovered over N30 billion
It was not clear if the N30 billion the EFCC chair said had been recovered from Mr Idris covered multi-billion naira assets traced to and recovered from him in the wake of his arrest.
PREMIUM TIMES obtained images of some of the multi-billion naira assets in June.
The assets, mostly in Kano, his home state in Nigeria’s northwestern region, are said to be worth billions of naira, significantly more than his monthly salary as a public officer.
Part of the assets is the Gezawa Commodity Market in Kano State.
One of the assets – Ultra-Modern Mall, located in Kano State – is said to be worth more than N700 million.
Pictures obtained showed the mall was sited on a large expanse of land.
However, while the major exterior works have been perfected, work is still ongoing inside with facilities like elevators and escalators being installed.
The accountant-general had in 2021 launched Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited which he had openly admitted to owning.
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