A defence witness on Thursday accused officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of attempting to coerce Henry Omoile into implicating former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Testifying before the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, the witness, Nnamdi Offial, told the court that EFCC investigators offered inducements to his client, including promises of bail and possible non-prosecution, if he agreed to give incriminating evidence against Emefiele.
Offial, who represents Omoile—the second defendant in the ongoing $4.5 billion and ₦2.8 million fraud trial involving Emefiele—gave his testimony during a trial-within-trial ordered by Justice Rahman Oshodi. The mini-trial is to determine whether Omoile’s statement to the EFCC was made voluntarily.
Emefiele and Omoile are facing multiple charges bordering on accepting gratification, receiving gifts through agents, corruption, fraudulent receipt of property, and conferring corrupt advantages on associates, contrary to the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Offial alleged that the head of the EFCC interrogation team assured Omoile that cooperation would earn him leniency. He further claimed that the interrogation was conducted in a restrictive question-and-answer format, with investigators refusing to allow Omoile to write responses that did not align with their expectations.
“On several occasions, questions were put to the second defendant and he answered, but he was not allowed to write them down because the answers did not conform to what the interrogators wanted him to say. I objected to this many times,” Offial told the court.
He recounted that after the interrogation session of February 26, 2024, EFCC officers informed him that Omoile would remain in detention. According to him, the following day he discovered that his client was being interrogated in his absence, prompting him to challenge the process.
Offial said an officer identified as David confronted him over his intervention, leading to a heated exchange that resulted in him being escorted out of the EFCC premises.
“I reported the incident to the team leader, who asked me to remain in the waiting area,” he said.
He added that he was unable to see Omoile again until about 8 p.m., when officers returned his client to the detention facility.
“Later, I was told that he had refused to cooperate with them and that they were not going to release him. That was when I applied for bail from the EFCC zonal head,” Offial stated.
The lawyer disclosed that Omoile was detained for 21 days, prompting him to file a fundamental rights enforcement suit at the Federal High Court in Lagos. He said Justice Muslim Hamza granted bail but ordered that Omoile be remanded at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre pending the perfection of bail conditions.
During cross-examination, EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), secured several admissions from the witness. Offial confirmed that investigators cautioned Omoile in his presence and that the defendant signed the cautionary statement.
He also admitted that he participated in the statement-taking process and understood that anything written could be used against his client in court.
When asked whether he filed a petition or formally reported the alleged misconduct, Offial said he did not. He further acknowledged that the judge in the fundamental rights suit did not indict the EFCC for misconduct and that Omoile was not harassed in his presence.
Justice Oshodi adjourned the case to January 16, 2026, for the continuation of the trial-within-trial.
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