$4.5bn Fraud Trial: Witness Tells Court EFCC Forced Him to Implicate Emefiele

Wale Igbintade
A defence witness, Henry Omoile, yesterday told the Ikeja Special Offences Court in Lagos that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) allegedly compelled him to write a statement implicating former Godwin Emefiele, the ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Omoile, who is also the second defendant in the alleged $4.5 billion fraud case, testified before Rahman Oshodi, the trial judge of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, during a trial-within-trial to determine whether a purported confessional statement he allegedly made while in EFCC custody was obtained voluntarily.

While giving evidence, the witness told the court that he was shocked and traumatised when his lawyer, Nnamdi Offiah, discovered that he was being compelled to write a statement in the absence of legal representation at the EFCC office.
According to Omoile, when his counsel questioned the situation and asked why his client was writing a statement without a lawyer present, the investigating officers allegedly ordered the lawyer to leave the interrogation room.

“The act of asking my lawyer to leave was shocking to me. I was surprised, afraid and traumatised.  I had to beg Mr. Azeez to allow me some time to recover from the shock,” Omoile told the court.
He further stated that his lawyer had not made any offensive remarks to the investigators but had merely sought clarification on why the statement was being taken without his presence.

“He was only asking why I should write a statement without him being present. I protested when they asked him to leave and questioned why they wanted to interrogate me in the absence of my lawyer, but they said they had their own way of conducting interrogations,” he said.