Nigeria, April 9 -- The Federal High Court in Abuja, has commenced a trial-within-trial to determine if a former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman's written statement allegedly confessing to corruption charges was made from his free will.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was said to have obtained the statement from him preparatory to filing the corruption charges against him last year.

EFCC's first witness in the trial-within-trial, a sideshow to the main N33.8 billion fraud trial, testified, insisting that Mr Mamman gave the statement voluntarily. This is according to a statement from the anti-graft agency's spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday.

Abubakar Kwaido, an investigator with the EFC...