Alleged N109bn Fraud: Former accountant-general Ahmed Idris’ trial stalled

Proceedings in the trial of suspended Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, over an alleged N109 billion money laundering suit were stalled on Wednesday.

Mr Idris alongside three others – Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited – are being tried at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court

But Wednesday’s proceedings could not go on due to a missing statement that was made by Mr Idris to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the course of investigation.

The defendants were initially arraigned before O A. Adeyemi-Ajayi, but they were re-arraigned last October before another judge, Halilu Yusuf.

The statement dated 5 July 2022, could not be found in the court’s record as well as EFCC’s and the defence team’s.

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, EFCC’s lawyer, Oluwaleke Atolagbe, began trial-within-trial of Mr Idris, following the suspended AGF’s denial of voluntarily making some of his statements to the anti-graft agency.

Mr Idris insists that key statements being proposed by the EFCC to be used against him in the alleged corruption charges were made under duress.

Due to the allegation, the judge, Mr Yusuf, ordered a trial-within-trial to authenticate the claims.

How missing statement stalled hearing

The EFCC had presented one of its witnesses, Hayatudeen Suleiman, for examination of 13 statements extracted from Mr Idris.

But the day’s proceedings came to a halt when it was discovered that the statement dated 5 July 2022, was missing.

The missing statement is said to be critical to the entire trial.

The issue was compounded when the anti-corruption agency could not find the statement in its own case file.

Mr Idris’ lawyer, Chris Uche, told the court that the missing statement did not form part of the prosecution’s statements that were given to him.

Mr Uche, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), accused EFCC of suppressing some documents, which the missing one might be a part of.

“We came fully prepared for this case to be substantially dealt with but unfortunately, EFCC appears to be dragging us back by not putting its house in order.

“If it were a civil matter, I would have asked for a cost of N5 million for our precious time wasted by the prosecution,” Mr Uche said.

Subsequently, the EFCC lawyer, sought an adjournment to enable him to search for the missing statement and serve it on the defendant as required by law.

Acceding to the request, the judge adjourned the case until 11 May for the continuation of trial-within-trial.

Background

The anti-graft agency re-arraigned the defendants on 27 October 27, 2022, on a 13-count charge bordering on alleged misappropriation of the sum of N109 billion.

Mr Idris and his co-defendants were first arraigned on 22 July 2o22, before Mr Ajayi, who was a vacation judge.

In one of the charges, the EFCC said between February and December 2021, Mr Idris accepted from Mr Akindele, a gratification of N15.1 billion, which sum was as a motive for accelerating the payment of 13 per cent derivation to the nine oil-producing states in the Federation, through the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

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Also, it alleged that N84.3 billion from the Federal Government’s account was cornered by Mr Idris and the second defendant (Mr Akindele) between February and November 2021.

According to the charges, the alleged offences violate sections 155 and 315 of the Penal Code Act Cap 532 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.