N450m Fraud: Bulama, Others’ Statements Were Obtained Voluntarily – Witness

The EFCC on Monday February 28, 2022 told Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, that the statements of a former minister of science and technology, Dr Abdu Bulama and four others were obtained voluntarily.

Prosecution witness, Dauda Umar, an operative of the EFCC who was led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Mukhtar Ali Ahmed, informed the court that the defendants were not coerced or forced to volunteer statements to the EFCC.

Umar who was testifying in a trial-within-trial, after the defendants had claimed that they made statements under duress, said the EFCC operated to international best practices and has no history of extracting statements from suspects by force.

“Each of the defendants wrote their statements by themselves. All of the defendants endorsed on the column provided by the EFCC as the recorders of their own hand written statements.

“The EFCC is carrying out its mandate according to the law of the land and based on the world best practice; therefore, the statements of the defendants were recorded without promise or threat of any kind,” Umar said.

From EFCC