A witness in the ongoing N109.5 billion fraud case against former Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, on Wednesday told the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja that she signed a statement written by the former public official while he was in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) because she was assured he would be released.
The witness, Hajiya Safiya Idris, made the disclosure while testifying before Justice Yusuf Halilu during a trial-within-trial instituted to determine whether statements made by the former Accountant-General to EFCC investigators were obtained voluntarily.
Safiya, who described Ahmed Idris as a father figure, said she visited the EFCC headquarters in Abuja in June 2022 after learning that he was being detained by the anti-graft agency.
According to her, she waited for several hours before she was eventually granted access to the office where Idris was being held. She told the court that two EFCC officials, identified as Hayatu and Mahmud, requested that she sign a statement written by the former Accountant-General.
She confirmed that both the handwriting and signature on the document shown to her in court belonged to her. However, she said she signed the statement after being assured that Idris would be released.
The witness further stated that the statement had already been completed before she entered the office and that her role was limited to signing as a witness after it had been written.
Under cross-examination by prosecution counsel, Oluwaleke Atolagbe, Safiya admitted that she was never invited by the EFCC, was not under investigation, and had visited the commission on her own initiative.
She also acknowledged that she did not file any complaint after signing the statement and that she was under no legal obligation to write anything for the anti-corruption agency.
When confronted with a portion of the statement indicating that it was made in her presence, she maintained that she was not lying when she wrote those words, although she could not state at what point the reference to her presence was inserted into the document.
Following her testimony, the court discharged the witness.
Defence counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), subsequently informed the court that the defence had closed its case in the trial-within-trial.
Justice Halilu thereafter adjourned proceedings until October 13 for the adoption of final written addresses, after which the court will determine whether the disputed statements are admissible as evidence in the substantive trial.
The trial-within-trial arose from objections raised by Idris’ legal team in November 2022, challenging the admissibility of statements he made to the EFCC during investigations into allegations that he and others diverted N109.5 billion in public funds.
The former Accountant-General is standing trial alongside Geoffrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited on a 14-count charge bordering on theft and fraudulent diversion of public funds.
The EFCC alleges that the defendants committed the offences between February and December 2021. Among other allegations, the commission claimed that Idris received N15 billion in gratification in connection with the accelerated payment of the 13 per cent derivation fund to oil-producing states and that over N84 billion belonging to the Federal Government was unlawfully converted.
All the defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Ahmed Idris served as Accountant-General of the Federation from 2015 until his suspension in May 2022 following the commencement of EFCC investigations.
The anti-graft agency has since secured interim forfeiture orders on several assets allegedly linked to the former Accountant-General, including cash sums running into hundreds of millions of naira, properties in Abuja and Kano, and the Gezawa Commodity Market.