The immediate past Accountant General of the Federation (AG-F), Ahmed Idris, is fighting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for listing him as one of the accused persons in the ongoing 14-count charge of stealing involving N109b.
Idris said the agreement between him and the EFCC was that he would not be tried if he cooperated with them in the course of investigating the crime which he did.
He said what the EFCC did to him amounted to backstabbing which he claimed was wrong in law.
But the EFCC had argued that he was talking balderdash.
The anti-graft agency said there was no time such agreement was entered with him.
The occasion was trial within trial proceeding conducted to establish whether the confessional statement made and signed by Idris where he confessed his involvement in the fraud charge was actually voluntarily made by him.
The EFCC had tendered an extra-judicial statement he made to the EFCC investigators on the issue alongside 12 other separate statements.
Idris, in the statement, dated May 25 , 2022 had said: “All along, I have cooperated with the EFCC officials and have volunteered information to demonstrate my commitment to make the investigation as easier and speedy.
“Any statement I have made before or I am making now are based on my firm assumption, belief and understanding that by being open and aligning myself with statements made by principal suspects, such statements will not be used against me and eventually lead to my trial or prosecution.
“In view of the foregoing statements, I wish to accept the net figure of N13.2billion I am confronted with, subject to the reservations expressed in this statement.”
His lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN) has objected to the admissibility of the statements, claiming that his client was hoodwinked by the investigators to make the statements , which contained some admissions.
Idris, his former Technical Assistant, Godfrey Olusegun Akindele; a director in the office of the AG-F, Mohammed Kudu Usman, and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited (said to be owned by Idris) are, in the main, being tried by the EFCC on a 14-count charge bordering on stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109b.
At the last hearing in the ongoing trial-within-trial, being conducted to ascertain whether or not Idris offered the statements voluntarily, Uche insisted that the investigators promised his client that he would not be prosecuted.
But, one of the investigators, who interrogated the ex-AG-F, Mahmoud Tukur, denied Uche’s position.
Tukur, the immediate past Head of Chairman Monitoring Unit (CMU) II of the EFCC testified as the second prosecution’s witness in the trial-within-trial on March 20.
He said: “We did not promise him anything,” Tukur said in response to Uche’s claim.
Earlier, when asked by the prosecuting lawyer, Oluwaleke Atolagbe if he promised Idris that he (Idris) would not be prosecuted, Tukur denied ever making any promise to the former AG-F.
Tukur said: “I never did. And, as the head of the unit, I can answer authoritatively to that. The first defendant was a senior public servant.
“He knows that it is not within my capacity to make such promises, because my duty is just to investigate and report my findings.
“In all the statements he wrote, he was cautioned and part of the cautionary words is that whatever he writes may be used as evidence in court.”
Another EFCC operative, Hayatudeen Suleiman, who was part of the investigation had, while testifying as the prosecution’s first witness in the trial-within-trial, also denied that any promise was made to Idris.
