Court rejects seven EFCC statements in Dasuki’s N33.2bn arms fraud trial

Justice Charles Agbaza of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, Abuja, on Friday rejected seven extrajudicial statements obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from the second defendant in the trial of former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd.), and three others over an alleged N33.2 billion arms fraud.

Dasuki, who served as NSA during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, is standing trial alongside Aminu Baba-Kusa, a former general manager with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and two companies, Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited.

The defendants are being prosecuted by the EFCC, on behalf of the Federal Government, on a 32-count amended charge bordering on criminal breach of trust, dishonest release of funds and receipt of various sums totalling N33.2 billion.

The former NSA and his co-defendants are accused of misappropriating security funds held in accounts belonging to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were re-arraigned before Justice Agbaza in March 2025, nearly 10 years after they were first arraigned before Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf, now the Chief Judge of the FCT.

At the resumed proceedings on Friday, Justice Agbaza rejected the statements while ruling on a trial-within-trial ordered by the court, holding that the EFCC failed to comply with the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, in obtaining them.

Specifically, the judge held that the EFCC failed to comply with Sections 16(4) and 17(2) of the ACJA regarding the presence of a legal practitioner and the video recording of the statement-taking process.

According to him, the prosecution failed to provide credible evidence during the trial-within-trial to establish that the seven statements it sought to tender in evidence were obtained in compliance with the law.

He held that the EFCC failed to video-record the process through which Baba-Kusa’s statements were obtained.

Justice Agbaza explained that audio-visual recording was intended to enable the court to examine the circumstances under which a defendant’s statements were obtained and determine whether they were made voluntarily.

The court subsequently adjourned the case until Friday, November 13, for the continuation of the main trial.

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The court had ordered the trial-within-trial in January to determine whether Baba-Kusa made the statements voluntarily following an objection by his counsel, Solomon Umoh, SAN, when the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, sought to tender them in evidence.

The prosecution had sought to tender the statements through its first witness, Michael Adariku, an operative of the anti-corruption commission.