The Special Offences Division of the Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja will on Friday, January 16, 2025, continue hearing in the trial within trial involving a former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

At the hearing of the case Thursday, before Justice Rahman Oshodi, the counsel for the second defendant, Henry Omoile, accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of attempting to pressure his client into implicating the former apex bank boss.

Omoile is standing trial as a co-defendant alongside the former CBN boss, who is facing allegations of accepting gratification, accepting gifts through agents, corruption, and fraudulent property receipts.

The anti-graft agency also accused the first defendant of conferring corrupt advantage on his associates, in contravention of the Corrupt Practices Act 2000.

Omoile, his associate, was specifically mentioned in the charge on allegations of acceptance of gifts by agents, contrary to Section 65 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.

Both men, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

In a trial-within-trial to determine the voluntariness of Omoile’s statement to the EFCC, his lawyer, Nnamdi Offial, claimed that the investigators made various promises to his client in exchange for indicting Emefiele.

At the resumed hearing of the matter on Thursday, Offial informed the judge that Omoile told him that the head of the EFCC team that interrogated him gave the assurance that he would get bail and might not be charged at all if he cooperated by revealing incriminating evidence against the first defendant.

The witness also testified that the interrogation was conducted in a question-and-answer format, and that his client was required to answer the questions satisfactorily before being allowed to write them on the statement sheet.

“On several occasions, questions were put to the second defendant, and he answered, but he was not allowed to write them down because the answer did not conform to what the interrogators wanted him to say. I objected to this many times.

“The sessions of 26 February 2024 ended with the investigative officers telling me they would be detaining him because they were not done with him,” he stated.

“On February 27, 2024, I met the second defendant while being interrogated by the team, and I questioned them on why the interrogation was being conducted behind me.

“One David challenged me, asking what right I had to question the manner in which the questions were being taken from the defendant. Temper rose, and David walked me out of the premises.

“I was taken aback and reported the incident to the head of the team, who told me not to worry and advised me to sit in the waiting area. I was not allowed to provide my services to my client until about 8 p.m., when he was taken back to the detention centre.

“Later, I was told that he had refused to cooperate with them, and they are not going to release him. It was at that point that I applied to the Zonal head of the EFCC for the defendant’s bail.

“The defendant was detained for 21 days. I later filed a fundamental rights case at the Federal High Court in Lagos, and the judge, Justice Muslim Hassan, granted him bail but ordered that he be remanded in the Ikoyi Correctional Centre until he perfects the bail conditions,” Offial added.

Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Rotimi Oyedepo, the witness admitted that the defendant was cautioned in his presence and that he signed the caution.

He also admitted that he participated in the process and knew that what the second defendant wrote could be used against him in court.

When asked by Oyedepo whether he had complained or filed a petition regarding the investigative team’s alleged conduct, the witness said no.

He also admitted that the judge who heard the fundamental rights enforcement case did not find the EFCC guilty of any misconduct and that his client was never harassed in his presence.

Justice Oshodi has adjourned the matter to January 16 for the continuation of the hearing.