The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)’s investigator, on Monday, denied the allegations that the exra-judicial statements of Ali Bello, the Chief of Staff (CoS) to Kogi State government, and his co-defendant in the ongoing trial, were made under duress.
The EFCC’s investigator, Ahmed Abubakar, who is the 1st prosecution witness (PW-1) in the trial-within-trial of the defendants, told Justice James Omotosho while being led in evidence by the EFCC’s lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that while Daudu Sulaiman is the 2nd defendant, Ali Bello, the nephew of former Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi, is the 1st defendant in the alleged N10 billion money laundering trial.
The duo, through their lawyers, Abubakar Aliyu, SAN, and Olusegun Jolaawo, SAN, had, on Monday, objected to the tendering of the eight statements they allegedly made voluntarily by Oyedepo as exhibits.
While Aliyu, who appeared for Bello, insisted that the six statements made by his client were not made voluntarily, Jolaawo, counsel for Sulaiman, equally told the court that his client was threatened by the commission’s operatives who took his client’s two statements.
However, the EFCC’s lawyer disagreed with the defence submissions.
The development occurred when Oyedepo sought to tender the six extra-judicial statements made by Bello and the two statements made by Suleiman as exhibits when leading Abubakar in evidence-in-chief as PW-17.
The Kogi’s CoS was said to have made those statements on Nov. 29, 2022; Nov. 30, 2022; Dec. 1, 2022; Dec. 10, 2022; Dec. 11, 2022 and Dec. 12, 2022, respectively, while Sulaiman made the two statements on Nov. 30, 2022 and Dec. 1, 2022.
After taking the counsel’s arguments, Justice Omotosho ordered a trial-within-trial and directed Abubakar, who is PW-17, to give evidence as PW-1 in the trial-within-trial.
The witness told the court that a member of his team, Yazid Bawa, and the team leader, Adamu Usman Yusuf, neither threatened the defendants while their statements were taken nor attempted to induce them.
He admitted that Bello was given a cautionary word notice which was signed by the defendant himself before he began to write the statement he made on Nov. 29, 2022.
When Oyedepo asked the witness to read out the cautionary word in the open court, the PW-1, while reading the document, said Bello admitted that he was told to oblige his lawyer before making the statement but that he chose to write in the absence of his lawyer.
However, Aliyu raised an objection against Oyedepo, leading the witness to read the document but the lawyer later dropped his objection after the judge’s intervention.
When Oyedepo asked the PW-1 if Bello was threatened, he said: “Yazid and Adamu did not threaten the defendant in my presence.”
The witness said the allegations by the 2nd defendant (Sulaiman) that he did not make his statements in accordance with the commission’s prescription under the law and that he was threatened to be forced to sit on an electric chair if he failed to make statements were false.
“I am hearing this for the first time. We don’t have any electric chair in the EFCC’s office that can electrocute someone.
“And no suspect has ever died of electrocution in the EFCC before,” the witness said.
The PW-1 also told the court that Sulaiman’s lawyer, Z.E. Abbas, endorsed all the pages of the statement the defendant made and that Abbas also used the words, “This statement was taken voluntarily in my presence,” in his endorsement.
After Oyedepo led the witness in evidence in the trial-within-trial, the defence lawyers cross-examined him and Justice Omotosho adjourned the matter until Feb. 17 for continuation of trial-within-trial.
