A retired Director of Legal Services in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Haruna Alabi, on Tuesday admitted to signing the statement made by the former AGF,, Ahmed Idris, as witness on May 17, 2022.
Alabi, was testifying in the trial-within-trial of the former AGG in an Abuja High Court while being cross examined by the prosecution counsel Oluwaleke Atolagbe.
The court had ordered a trial-within-trial following the objection raised by Idris counsel, Chris Uche SAN.
Uche objected on the grounds that Idris’ statements the prosecution sought to tender on Nov. 23, 2022 were made on the ground of deception and inducement.
Idris is charged alongside Geoffrey Akindele; Mohammed Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited with fraudulent diversion of public fund to the tune of N109.5 billion before Justice Halilu Yusuf. They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Testifying, Alabi identified his signature and name when the exhibit marked B3 ( Idris statement on May 17, 2022) was shown to him.
When being cross examined by the prosecution counsel Atolagbe, the witness told the court that he visited Idris in the company of other directors at the EFCC headquarters on May 17, 2022.
When asked if Idris was still the AGF as of May 17, 2022, the witness said he was in the custody of the EFCC.
Asked in what capacity was their visit? He said as our former boss.’ We wanted to show empathy.
“I wrote my name and signed on the back of the 1st defendant ‘s statement of May 17, 2022 and did not sign on any other space,” he said..
Answering if the 1st defendant wrote the statement of May 17 which he signed at the back, the witness said: ”I don’t know“.
After his evidence, the first defendant counsel, asked for adjournment to enable him produce his witness.
Justice Yusuf directed the defence to produce all his witnesses by the next adjourned date.
He then adjourned the continuation of the trial-within-trial until June 24.
