Ex-AGF pleads with court to negotiate with EFCC over alleged fraud of ₦1.96 billion.
The ex-AGF made the motion after the EFCC informed the court that it had summoned five additional witnesses to testify in the case.
Former Acting Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) Anamekwe Nwabuoku has requested time to negotiate with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before his trial for suspected ₦1.96 billion fraud.
The ex-AGF, who is facing a nine-count indictment, entered the plea after the EFCC, through its lawyer, Ekele Iheanacho (SAN), informed the court that it had summoned five additional witnesses to testify in the case.
Despite being represented by a lawyer at the session, Isidore Udenko, the defendant, informed the court that he had hired the services of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to assist him in negotiating an out-of-court settlement of the matter.
Udenko observed that the case went to trial after the defendant’s first attempt to strike an agreement with the anti-graft agency failed.
The EFCC’s lawyer, Iheanacho, said he was not opposed to the defendant’s request.
“Even though our five witnesses are in court and we are ready to go on with the trial, however, if the request of the defendant will meet the justice of the case, we will not be opposing,” said the prosecution’s attorney.
Consequently, Justice James Omotosho adjourned further proceedings in the case until March 13, 2025.
The trial judge deferred the case to await either a settlement report or a continuation of the hearing.
Nwabuoku was nominated to temporarily lead the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation in May 2022, following the suspension of the then-AGF, Ahmed Idris, and subsequent trial for allegedly laundering public monies amounting over N80.2 billion.
The EFCC then claimed that Nwabuoku had already accessed public accounts prior to his appointment.
Investigations into the allegations led to his resignation from office in July 2022, just a few weeks after being appointed.
He was subsequently accused in court alongside Felix Nweke, a Director in the Federal Civil Service.
However, the EFCC eventually revised the allegation and removed Nweke as the second defendant after he consented to testify against the former acting AGF.
In the new allegation, the EFCC said that Nwabuoku violated Section 18 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011, as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012, and was punished under Section 15(3) of the same Act.
The court had previously heard how the defendant used four distinct firms to syphon state monies totalling approximately N1.96 billion.
His former co-defendant, Nweke, revealed the information after mounting the box to testify as the second prosecution witness.
In his opening statement, Nweke informed the court that in order to conceal the fraud, the looted cash were transferred to bank accounts with only one signatory, Gideon Joseph.