Although the former Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris who is standing trial for alleged graft of N109 billion has accused the Economic and Financial Crime Commission of tricking him into admitting the allegations against him, a US-based scholar, Farooq A. Kperogi has argued that Idris’ action also amounted to blasphemy against Nigeria.
Citing the outrage that trailed the death of Deborah, the student Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto who was killed by a mob over alleged blasphemy, Kperogi in a 2022 article titled: AGF Ahmed Idris’ “Blasphemy” Against ASUU and Nigeria, said:
“I am intentionally appropriating, and extending the semantic boundaries of, the term “blasphemy” for this piece because it seems to be the only term that inflames enough passions to get Nigerians to talk, listen, or act.
“Alhaji Ahmed Idris, the suspended Accountant General of the Federation, has “blasphemed” the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nigeria, and even decency with his stratospheric pillaging of the nation’s resources. One of the consequences of his theft is the closure of our public universities.
“He should be “beaten,” “stoned,” and “burned” with speedy prosecutorial vengeance to avenge his blasphemy. If blasphemy is “the act of depriving something of its sacred character,” Idris has more than stripped our public universities of their “sacredness” by being partly responsible for the ongoing strike by ASUU, which has put the futures of our youth on hold.
At the resumed hearing of the action against Idris on Thursday, the ex-AGF claimed that the EFCC told him they wanted to use him to get the minister of finance and some other governors.
Idris and his co-defendants are standing trial on 14 charges of stealing and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N109.5 billion.
Idris was arraigned alongside Godfrey Olusegun Akindele and Mohammed Kudu Usman, and a firm — Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited.
In a statement said to be written by Idris and dated May 16, 2022, which was partly read out by the prosecution witness, Hayatudeen Ahmed, in court on Thursday, the ex-AGF stated that the EFCC promised him that whatever information he gives would not be used against him.
The prosecution witness read the statement after being asked to while being cross-examined by Idris’ counsel, Chris Uche (SAN).
After reading, the prosecution witness stated that such assurances were not given, and neither was he under duress.
He said, “There was no such assurance. The statements made by Idris on the 25th, 26th, and 31st of May 2022 and that made on the 1st, 6th, 10th, 20th of June 2022, and 5 July 2022 were made willingly by the defendants contrary to the claims that they were allegedly made under duress by the defendants.”
Earlier, when the hearing commenced on Thursday, the counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs(SAN), applied to tender video evidence that contained a recorded interview of the first to third defendants at the Commission’s Monitoring Unit Chairman’s office as an exhibit before the court.
The prosecution counsel told the court that the video clip sought to be tendered was to counter the claim by the defendants that they were interrogated in the absence of their lawyer and without video recordings and in accordance with the Administration Of Criminal Justice Act/Laws.
Counsel for Idris, however, objected to the admissibility of the video clip, noting that it was just sent to him a day before the hearing and would need time to know what was contained in the compact disc device sent to him.
Other lawyers aligned with Uche’s position.
However Justice Yusuf Halilu in a brief ruling overruled their objections.
He said, “Admissibility and value are two different things. A document once admitted can also be useless or otherwise. The Defendants did not give reasons the video should not be admitted but complained about the time they were served. This video is hereby admitted as evidence.”
After listening to the Cross-examination, Justice Halilu adjourned the trial to March 20, 2024.
The trial judge also dismissed his initial order revoking the bail of Geoffrey Akindele, one of the defendants in the trial.
Akindele, who is the second defendant in the case and Idris are standing trial alongside Mohammed Kudu Usman and Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange Limited, on 14 charges bordering on diversion of public funds to the tune of N109.5 billion.
Idris was arrested in 2022 by officers of the EFCC for enormous stealing. EFCC also revealed that he used proxies to obtain prime properties “located in Kano, Lagos, Abuja, Dubai and London” at the expense of Nigeria.
While Nigerians await the outcome of this staggeringly monumental fraud, public affairs analysts note that it was ASUU that first called attention to the questionable source of his wealth when no one cared.
Prof Lawan Abubakar, a coordinator of the Bauchi Zone of ASUU, at in 2020 issued a statement on behalf of ASUU calling attention to Idris’ unexplained wealth and grasping acquisitiveness.
“We would want Gentlemen of the Press to assist us in the conduct of two Investigations,” he said. “The first is to uncover who bought the version of the Sokoto Hotel in Kano with a whopping sum of N500million cash down and demolished it the next day for ongoing development of a multi-billion-naira shopping mall.
“How and where did he get money for such investment? The second assignment is to assist uncover who is hiding to invest multi-billion naira in the Gezawa Commodity Market and Exchange. How and where did he get money for such investment?”
It was also alleged that Idris blatantly stole lecturers’ salaries through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which ironically bills itself as a safeguard against fraud.
According to Prof Lawan Abubakar, “Idris made N16,000 for every university lecturer who enrolled in IPPIS. The IPPIS also indiscriminately and inexplicably deducted thousands of naira from the salaries and allowances of lecturers every month.
“Just days after his arrest, many friends told me, they started getting bank alerts notifying them of the payment of backlogs of unpaid allowances— and possibly payments from the reversal of illegal deductions.”
And for Farooq A. Kperogi: “…I wish someone would indoctrinate Nigerians to be as angry, touchy, intolerant, and pushed to draw ‘red lines’ over injustice, misgovernance, elite cruelty, etc. as some people in the Muslim North are over ‘blasphemy’. Leaders would always be on their game, on their guard, and on their best behaviour. And Nigeria would be one of the best places to live on earth.”
