Mr. Nnamdi Offial, counsel to the second defendant, Henry Omoile, in the ongoing trial of former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of pressuring his client to implicate the former apex bank chief.
Offial made the claim while testifying in a trial-within-trial, which Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court ordered to determine whether Omoile’s statement to the EFCC was made voluntarily.
He alleged that EFCC investigators offered multiple promises to Omoile, including bail and the possibility of avoiding charges, if he cooperated by providing incriminating information against Emefiele.
Emefiele and Omoile are facing charges of accepting gratification, receiving gifts through agents, corruption, and fraudulent receipt of property.
The EFCC also accused them of conferring corrupt advantage on associates, contrary to 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 head of the EFCC interrogation team assured him of leniency if he implicated the first defendant.
He added that the interrogation was conducted in a question-and-answer format, where his client had to respond “satisfactorily” before being allowed to write down his answers.
“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 further recounted that the session on February 26, 2024, ended with investigators informing him that Omoile would be detained because they were not finished with him.
Offial also described an incident on February 27, 2024, when he questioned why his client was being interrogated in his absence.
This, he claimed, led to a confrontation with one of the officers, identified as Davide, who allegedly 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.
He later learned that Omoile was being detained for refusing to cooperate, which prompted him to apply for bail from the EFCC zonal head.
Offial said his client spent 21 days in detention before filing a fundamental rights enforcement suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos, where Justice Muslim Hassan granted bail but ordered that Omoile be remanded at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre until bail conditions were perfected.
Under cross-examination by the prosecution counsel, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, Offial admitted that Omoile had been cautioned in his presence and that he signed the caution.
He also acknowledged that he participated in the statement-taking process and was aware 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 investigators’ alleged conduct, and that the Federal High Court did not find the commission guilty of any misconduct in the fundamental rights suit.
He also conceded that his client was not harassed in his presence during interrogation.
Justice Oshodi adjourned the matter to January 16 for the continuation of the trial-within-trial.
