Ahmed Idris

Ahmed Idris, the former Accountant General of the Federation, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of tricking him into accepting the allegation of N109bn fraud against himself.

The former AGF made the allegation in court on Thursday when he and his co-defendants appeared on 14 counts charges of stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109.5 billion.

According to Idris, the EFCC deceived him into accepting the fraud allegation as he was told by the anti-graft agency that they wanted to use him to get the minister of finance and some other governors.

Idris was arraigned alongside Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman, and a firm — Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.

In a statement said to be written by Idris and dated May 16, 2022, which was partly read out by the prosecution witness, Hayatudeen Ahmed, in court on Thursday, the ex-AGF stated that the EFCC promised him that whatever information he gives would not be used against him.

The prosecution witness read the statement during a cross-examination by Idris’ counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), at the request of the lawyer.

However, after reading, the prosecution witness stated that such assurances were not given, and neither was he under duress.

He said, “There was no such assurance. The statements made by Idris on the 25th, 26th, and 31st of May 2022 and that made on the 1st, 6th, 10th, 20th of June 2022, and 5 July 2022 were made willingly by the defendants contrary to the claims that they were allegedly made under duress by the defendants.”

Earlier, when the hearing commenced on Thursday, the counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs(SAN), applied to tender video evidence that contained a recorded interview of the first to third defendants at the Commission’s Monitoring Unit Chairman’s office as an exhibit before the court.

Recall that Idris served under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari and was embroiled in multiple fraud allegations, leading to his suspension from office and arrest by the EFCC.