An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) witness insisted on Wednesday that one of former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki’s co-defendant in their N33.2 billion arms funds diversion trial voluntarily wrote his extrajudicial statements without any form of coercion.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja had paused the main trial in January to conduct a trial-within-trial to ascertain Aminu Baba-Kusa, the second defendant’s claim of writing the statement under duress while in EFCC custody in 2015.
Salihu Kadir, an EFCC detective, testified as the third prosecution witness in the trial-within-trial on Wednesday.
His testimony echoed earlier testimonies of two other EFCC officials, who maintained that the defendant freely wrote the statements, which the prosecution sought to tender to prove its case in the trial.
“I supervised the recording of the Exhibit (extra-judicial statement), which was dated Nov 26, 2015. I administered the cautionary words,” Mr Kadir said, led by the prosecution lawyer, Oluwaleke Atolagbe. “The witness made his statement voluntarily after words of caution were read to him.”
Mr Dasuki and Mr Baba-Kusa are facing a joint trial for alleged diversion of N33.2 billion in arms and security funds entrusted to the NSA office.
The EFCC is prosecuted them alongside Mr Baba-Kusa’s companies – Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited – which allegedly received part of the suspicious funds from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) under Mr Dasuki’s supervision.
The trial has lasted for over a decade, suffering spells of setbacks that stalled its progress.
EFCC had to re-arraign the defendants in March last year after the case was reassigned to the current trial judge, Charles Agbaza, kicking off a fresh start after about 10 years of complicated run.
The defendants all denied the charges again as they previously did before the former judge.
On 14 January, the EFCC tried to tender Mr Baba-Kusa’s statements as evidence, but Mr Baba-Kusa’s lawyer objected to their admissibility on the grounds that they were obtained under duress.
The defence argued that a statement made by someone while being held in the underground cell of the EFCC could not be said to have been freely made.
He also said there was no compliance with Section 15(4) and 17 (2) of the Administration of Justice Act 2015.
This prompted the judge to order trial-within-trial to ascertain the voluntariness of the statements.
“Statement was taken after a search of Mr Baba-Kusa’s office and house”
Mr Kadir’s EFCC’s third witness in the trial-within-trial said on Wednesday that the disputed statement was written at the EFCC’s office in the presence of the commission’s staff members, following words of caution.
The witness gave a brief description of the environment where Mr Baba-Kusa wrote the statement.
“The room is a general open room, and other persons were present in the room, and about three people on the part of the second defendant were witnesses to the statement taken.
“There was the company secretary, a lady, a finance controller, and a lawyer,” he said.
According to the EFCC investigator, Mr Baba-Kusa’s statement was taken after a search of his office and house. He said the statement captured items recovered from Mr Baba-Kusa’s house.