The Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, Special Offences Division, has admitted as evidence, the extrajudicial remarks made by the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, in his ongoing prosecution over alleged abuse of authority and multi-billion-naira fraud. Africans & Diaspora
Justice Rahman Oshodi said the statements were not confessional in nature and did not need a trial-within-a-trial to assess their admissibility. Channels TV reports.
Emefiele’s defence team argued that the statements were involuntarily collected when the former CBN governor was in detention for over 157 days by the Department of State Services and alleged he was subjected to physical and psychological torture.
The court, however, found the complaints to have no merit. The court further held that the utterances were not admissions to the offences accused against the defendant as argued by the prosecution.
The judge therefore admitted into evidence statements made by Emefiele during interviews with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in late 2023, rejecting the defence’s reliance on the Anti-Torture Act to dispute their admittance.
The prosecution, lead by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), informed the court that the interviews were conducted in the presence of Emefiele’s legal counsel and argued that the utterances were not confessions. The prosecution also dropped one of the statements it had earlier sought to offer.
Emefiele and co-defendant Henry Omoile are under trial before a Federal High Court in Abuja on a 19-count indictment centring on alleged abuse of power, corruption, collecting gratification and fraudulent property transactions involving the sum of roughly $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion. Omoile is also separately facing accusations over the alleged unlawful acceptance of gifts.
Both defendants have pleaded not guilty to the accusations .
Justice Oshodi adjourned the case till October 6, 7 and 8 and November 11, 12 and 13, 2026 for continuation of trial.
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