The suspended accountant general of the federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, has negotiated for a plea bargain in the N109 billion fraud case.
Recall that Idris was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in May following his failure to honour the commission’s invitation to answer questions on alleged N80 billion fraud.
After his arrest, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, announced his indefinite suspension without pay.
On July 22, he was arraigned on a 14-count charge alongside Godfrey Olusegun Akindele, Mohammed Kudu Usman, and a firm — Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.
They were, however, granted bail.
At the court session on Wednesday, counsel for the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, told the court that Idris and his co-defendants had, through a third party, requested to meet him to negotiate the plea bargain arrangement.
“My lord, the defendants sent a third party to me that they wanted a plea bargain meeting and that they wanted to meet me.
“But my reply to them was that I could not meet them in the absence of their lawyers.
“By the nature of our calling, we must be open and transparent.
“Since section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act encourages settlement and plea bargaining, I told them to come with their lawyers and that I would also invite the investigators to come for the meeting,” Jacob said
However, the prosecutor said the meeting, which was to hold last Monday, was called off after a lawyer from the chambers of Chris Uche, counsel for the suspended accountant-general, came to his office to protest their exclusion from the arrangement.
“One of the lawyers in the team of the first defendant, Mr. Kanayo Okafor, came to my office at the EFCC and protested that they were not carried along and that his client would not come for the meeting.
“I later spoke with the senior counsel, chief Uche, SAN, for more than 30 minutes over the matter and he protested that we did not invite them.
“It was at that point that I decided to call the meeting off, even though the senior lawyer eventually pleaded that it should go on.
“I called it off because, in the first place, the meeting was at their instance. So, none of the defendants entered the EFCC premises or came for the meeting,” Jacob added.
Responding, Uche who represented the first defendant (Idris) insisted that his client and his co-defendants were at the EFCC office for the meeting, but declined to go further with the negotiation after they were asked to go to the office of the EFCC chairman.
“My lord, I could not interview my client on Monday as slated because he was at the EFCC (office).
“Surprisingly, he was at the EFCC [office] but his lawyers were not carried along. We had thought that one of the prerequisites for charging a matter in court is that the prosecution has concluded its investigations.
“We find it contemptuous that a matter already before the court could be tried in the office of the EFCC chairman. That is not good practice. We were deprived of the opportunity to meet our client to be able to properly prepare for his defence,” he said
The presiding judge, Justice Adeyemi Ajayi, adjourned further proceedings on the matter till October 4.
With TheCable report
