The lawyer for Henry Omoile, second defendant in the ongoing $4.5 billion fraud trial of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday, accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of pressuring his client into implicating the former apex bank chief.
Testifying in a trial-within-trial at the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, Nnamdi Offial said EFCC investigators made repeated promises to Mr Omoile, including bail and the possibility of not being charged, if he cooperated by providing incriminating evidence against Emefiele.
“The head of the EFCC interrogation team assured my client of leniency if he implicated the first defendant,” Offial told the court.
Mr Offial said the interrogation was conducted in a structured question-and-answer format, with Mr Omoile required to answer questions satisfactorily before being allowed to write them down.
He alleged that the investigative officers repeatedly rejected answers that did not align with what they wanted, and that he raised objections on multiple occasions.
“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,” Mr Offial stated.
The lawyer further told the court that he was temporarily barred from assisting Mr Omoile during one of the sessions after questioning the manner in which the interrogation was conducted.
Messrs Omoile and Emefiele are standing trial on 22 counts, including accepting gratification, receiving gifts through agents, corruption, and fraudulent receipt of property.
Some of the charges accused Mr Emefiele of conferring corrupt advantage on associates, contrary to the Corrupt Practices Act, 2000. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Background
The trial-within-trial was ordered by the trial judge to determine whether Omoile’s statements to the EFCC were given voluntarily.
In December 2025, EFCC operative Alvan Gurumnaan had testified in the trial-within-trial that Mr Omoile wrote his statements voluntarily and was cautioned in the presence of his lawyer.
The statements, which form part of the prosecution’s case, were allegedly aimed at providing evidence against Mr Emefiele.
Mr Gurumnaan said the statements were taken openly at the EFCC office in Ikoyi, with the lawyer and the Acting Managing Director of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) present. No officer used coercion or intimidation, he maintained.
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“The second defendant did not make any statement under duress. Our officers do not force statements through violence or intimidation,” Mr Gurumnaan told the court.
Mr Oshodi adjourned the trial-within-trial until Friday for continuation of proceedings.
Mr Omoile remains in detention while the court determines the voluntariness of his statements, which could significantly impact the prosecution’s case against both defendants.
