Alleged $4.5bn Fraud: EFCC Tried to Coerce My Client to Implicate Emefiele, Lawyer Tells Court

Counsel to the second defendant, Henry Omoile, Mr Nnamdi Offial, on Thursday accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of attempting to pressure his client into making statements implicating former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

Offial made the allegation while testifying in a trial-within-trial ordered by Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court to determine whether Omoile’s statement to the EFCC was made voluntarily.

According to the lawyer, EFCC investigators allegedly offered his client inducements, including bail and the possibility of not being charged, if he agreed to provide incriminating information against Emefiele.

Emefiele and Omoile are facing charges relating to accepting gratification, receiving gifts through agents, corruption and fraudulent receipt of property. The EFCC also accused them of conferring corrupt advantage on associates, in violation of the Corrupt Practices Act, 2000. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.

At the resumed hearing, Offial told the court that Omoile informed him that the leader of the EFCC interrogation team promised leniency if he implicated the first defendant.

He further testified that the interrogation followed a question-and-answer format and that his client was only allowed to write answers that met the investigators’ expectations.

“On several occasions, questions were put to the second defendant and he answered, but he was not allowed to write them down because the answers did not conform to what the interrogators wanted him to say. I objected to this many times,” Offial said.

He added that on February 26, 2024, investigators told him that Omoile would remain in custody because they were not finished with the interrogation.

Offial also recounted that the following day, February 27, 2024, he queried why his client was being questioned in his absence, an action that allegedly led to a confrontation with an officer identified as Davide, who ordered him out of the premises.

“I reported the incident to the head of the team, who advised me not to worry and to sit in the waiting area. I was not allowed to render services to my client until about 8pm, when he was taken back to the detention centre,” he said.

According to Offial, he later discovered that Omoile was being detained for refusing to cooperate with investigators, prompting him to apply for bail through the EFCC zonal head.

He told the court that his client was held for 21 days before he filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit at the Federal High Court in Lagos. Justice Muslim Hassan granted bail but ordered that Omoile be remanded at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre pending the fulfilment of bail conditions.

However, under cross-examination by prosecution counsel, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, Offial admitted that Omoile was cautioned in his presence and signed the caution statement. He also confirmed that he participated in the statement-taking process and knew that whatever his client wrote could be used against him in court.

The defence witness further admitted that he did not file any petition against the EFCC over the alleged conduct of its officers and that the Federal High Court did not indict the commission for misconduct in the fundamental rights suit. He also conceded that Omoile was not harassed in his presence during interrogation.

Justice Oshodi adjourned the matter to January 16 for the continuation of the trial-within-trial.

Opinion Nigeria News