A former Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris, on Tuesday opened his defence in the trial-within-trial in an Abuja High Court.
Mr Idris was dragged before Justice Yusuf Halilu by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, alongside Geoffrey Akindele; Mohammed Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited .
The EFCC dragged them on a 14-count charge, alleging that they fraudulently diverted public funds to the tune of N109.5 billion.
Testifying, Mr Idris told the court that he made a total of 16 statements on different days in the course of EFCC investigation but the prosecution only sought to tender 13 of them.
According to him, he.made the first statement on Jan. 22, 2022, when he went to the EFCC headquarters to see the former EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa.
” I was made to write a statement without my lawyer present.
“I objected but one Hayatudeen (EFCC operative) insisted that I must give a statement if I want my freedom.
” I had to give that statement to get that freedom to leave,” he said.
He alleged that his interrogators dictated what he wrote in the statement.
He said: ”To the best of my knowledge, there was no video recording of what transpired that day”.
He added that the statement recording ended around 2a.m.
According to him, he was in custody and was not released on bail.
Idris alleged that between May 17 and May 21, 2022, the interrogations were very rigorous .
He said while being detained by EFCC, he was taken to the chairman’s office on three occasions and the.then chairman, Bawa had told him he was not the target.
”He told me that the target was the former Minister of Finance,” he said.
Justice Yusuf Halilu adjourned until May 7 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.
NAN
