A former Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, opened his defence on Tuesday in the trial-within-trial in the Abuja High Court.

Mr Idris was dragged before Justice Yusuf Halilu by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside Geoffrey Akindele, Mohammed Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.

The EFCC dragged them on a 14-count charge, alleging that they fraudulently diverted public funds to the tune of N109.5 billion.

Testifying, Mr Idris told the court that he made 16 statements on different days during the EFCC’s investigation, but the prosecution only sought to tender 13 of them.

The former minister said he made the first statement on January 22, 2022, when he went to the EFCC headquarters to see the former EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa.

” I was made to write a statement without my lawyer present,” said Mr Idris. “I objected, but one Hayatudeen (EFCC operative) insisted that I give a statement if I want my freedom.”

” I had to give that statement to get that freedom to leave.”

He added, ”To the best of my knowledge, there was no video recording of what transpired that day.”

Mr Idris said the statement recording ended around 2:00 a.m.

He said he was in custody and was not released on bail.

Mr Idris alleged that the interrogations were very rigorous between May 17 and May 21, 2022.

He said that while being detained by EFCC, he was taken to the chairman’s office on three occasions, and the then chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had told him he was not the target.

”He told me that the target was the former Minister of Finance,” he said.

Justice Yusuf Halilu adjourned until May 7 for the continuation of the trial-within-trial.

(NAN)