The former Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, has accused the Economic and Financial Crime Commission of deceiving him to admit to the allegations against him.
The ex-AGF claimed that the EFCC told him they wanted to use him to get the minister of finance and some other 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.
Idris was arraigned alongside Godfrey Olusegun Akindele and Mohammed Kudu Usman, and a firm — Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.
In a statement said to be written by Idris and dated May 16, 2022, which was partly read out by the prosecution witness, Hayatudeen Ahmed, in court on Thursday, the ex-AGF stated that the EFCC promised him that whatever information he gives would not be used against him.
The prosecution witness read the statement after being asked to while being cross-examined by Idris’ counsel, Chris Uche (SAN).
After reading, the prosecution witness stated that such assurances were not given, and neither was he 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.
