Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
An Ikeja Special Offences Court on Thursday, 9 July 2026, admitted into evidence extra-judicial statements made by former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele in his ongoing trial for alleged abuse of office, corruption, and fraudulent property transactions valued at approximately $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion. Justice Rahman Oshodi upheld the admissibility of the statements, ruling that they were not confessional in nature and therefore did not require a trial-within-trial to determine their voluntariness.
Emefiele is standing trial alongside his co-defendant, Henry Omoile, on a 19-count charge bordering on alleged gratification, corrupt demands, and abuse of office. Omoile faces a separate three-count charge of unlawfully accepting gifts in connection with transactions involving the CBN. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The statements, which were marked as Exhibit K31, were made during interviews with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on 27 October, 30 October, 11 November, 12 November, and 13 November 2023.
The defence team, led by Olalekan Ojo, SAN, had urged the court to reject the statements, arguing that they were not voluntarily obtained and were extracted through oppression and physical and mental torture while Emefiele was detained by the Department of State Services for more than 157 days. Ojo relied on provisions of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017, and relevant sections of the Evidence Act, contending that video recordings of the interrogations would have been the most reliable proof of compliance with due process. He also questioned the role of the lawyer who witnessed the interviews and described the statements as "poisoned fruits" that should be excluded from evidence.
However, the prosecution, led by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, opposed the defence's arguments. Oyedepo called an EFCC investigator, Alvan Gurumnaan, as a witness, who testified that Emefiele was invited for questioning in the presence of his lawyer and that all interviews were conducted with his legal representative present. The prosecution maintained that a trial-within-trial was unnecessary because none of the statements sought to be tendered amounted to a confession or contained any admission of wrongdoing. Oyedepo argued that there was nothing in the defendant's statements that could be construed as an admission of the facts in issue.
In his ruling, Justice Oshodi held that the provisions of Section 4 of the Anti-Torture Act did not justify a trial-within-trial to determine the admissibility of the statements, as they were not confessional in nature. The judge ruled that for a statement to qualify as confessional, it must contain an unequivocal admission of the offences alleged against the maker, which was not the case here. The court consequently dismissed the objections and admitted the statements as exhibits, clearing the way for the substantive trial to proceed.
Following the ruling, the court adjourned the case to 6, 7, and 8 October, and 11, 12, and 13 November 2026, for the continuation of trial.
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