N5.1BN ALLEGED FRAUD: Confessional statement made under duress, Dudafa tells court

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs, Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, on Monday denied his statement, claiming his was forced to make it by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under extreme duress.

Dudafa is facing charges of N5.1 billion money laundering along with a banker, Joseph Iwuejo who also denied his own confessional statement.

The duo is being tried on 23 counts before Justice Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court in Lagos.

Mr. Gboyega Oyewole, Dudafa’s lawyer had during Monday’s proceedings in the case, resisted the move by the EFCC’s lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, to tender Dudafa’s extrajudicial statement, which he made to the EFCC as an exhibit against his client.

In the same vein, he resisted Oyedepo’s move to tender an asset declaration form filed by Dudafa on April 27, 2016 in the EFCC custody as an exhibit against the accused.

Oyewole said, “We are opposed to the bid to have this (asset declaration form) admitted as evidence. Our basis is that it was not voluntarily made by the first defendant. It was obtained under extreme duress; all sorts of promises were made to induce him (Dudafa) to admit all this.

“My Lord, we are contesting the voluntariness of this document.”

Oyedepo on the other hand claimed that an asset declaration form filled by a suspect was not categorised under sections 28 and 29 of the Evidence Act as an extrajudicial statement.

He argued that “the document sought to be tendered is not a statement suggesting that Mr. Dudafa had committed an offence. It is the declaration of his assets and, My Lord, that is in compliance with Section 27 of the EFCC Act, which imposes an obligation on a suspect under investigation to declare his assets and that cannot be construed to mean giving a statement.”

Read also: FG details how Justice Ngwuta destroyed evidence, gets N100m bail

However, counsel to Dudafa insisted that for all intent and purposes, the asset declaration form filled by his client while in the EFCC custody and days after his arrest was qualified as an extrajudicial statement.

He said, “There is no basis on which to distinguish between this and any other extrajudicial statement made by the first defendant.”

The trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, after listening to their arguments, fixed December 14 and 15 to conduct a trial within trial to determine whether the extra-judicial statements made by Dudafa and his co-accused Iwejuo were made voluntarily.

 

 

 

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