Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja and presided by Justice James Omotosho has adjourned to April 7, 10, 14, and May 2, 2025, for a trial within trial, the N33.8 billion fraud case of the former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman.
According to the Head of Media and Publicity of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Dele Oyewale, Mamman is being prosecuted by the anti-graft agency on a 12-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit money laundering to the tune of N33.8 billion.
The alleged fraud is related to the Mambilla Power Project.
Oyewale stated that the trial within trial was ordered to determine the voluntariness of Mamman’s confessional statement, which was made at the EFCC office on February 20, 2024.
The defence counsel, Femi Ate, SAN, had alleged that the statement was not made voluntarily, claiming that Mamman was threatened and forced to write it against his will.
He said that during the proceedings, Abubakar, an investigator with the EFCC and the seventeenth prosecution witness (PW17), testified that over N26 billion had left the Ministry of Power through bureau de change operators’ accounts on the instructions of Mamman and his cohorts.
“The court, while delivering its ruling on the objection by defence counsel, Femi Ate, SAN, alleging that the confessional statement made by Mamman at the office of the EFCC on February 20, 2024, was not voluntarily made, held that the issue of an involuntary statement and other grounds of objection raised by the defence counsel can only be resolved by conducting a trial within trial to ascertain their veracity.
“Consequently, I hereby order a trial within trial to determine the voluntariness or otherwise of this case,” Oyewale quoted Justice James Omotosho as saying.