The embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, was on Friday arraigned at the Ikeja Special Offences Court, where he was granted a 50 million naira bail.
The Editor Nigeria reports that Emefiele is facing a 26-count charge bordering on alleged abuse of office and fraud to the tune of $4.5 billion and ₦2.8 billion.
The former CBN is facing the charges alongside his co-defendant, Henry Isioma-Omoile.
During the hearing on Friday, a CBN staff, Monday Osazuwa, disclosed to the court how Emefiele, on different occasions, directed him to collect the sum of $3 million cash in tranches.
Osasuwa, while being led in evidence by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), said that he was a dispatch rider in Zenith Bank since 2001 before he joined CBN as a contract staff in 2014.
He noted that the former CBN boss was the managing director of Zenith Bank while he was working as a dispatch rider in the bank.
Osazuwa said he knew Emefiele, who was his boss while in Zenith Bank before and later joined him in CBN.
According to him, he was later appointed as a senior supervisor (full-time) in recording and filing documents while working in the governor’s office in Lagos.
He said: “I was still working in the governor’s office while I was appointed as a full staff and we usually communicate through WhatsApp and email.
“I perform as a senior supervisor, recording and filing with other official roles.
“I could recall in 2020, when he was outside Lagos, he called me that he would give me a number that a man has something he would collect something from him and that the man would give me number of another person.
“When I got to the man’s office, he was given an envelope, counted the money, and said I should give it to my boss.”
Speaking further, Osazuwa disclosed that Emefiele usually collected money by himself anytime he was in Lagos, but any time the defendant was not around, he would tell him to give the money to Henry Isioma-Omoile.
Osazuwa added that Emefiele sent him to MINL Ltd when he was with Zenith Bank.
According to him: “This company is situated at Isolo. The first defendant do send me to collect cheques from the company from Mr. Monday, and when I collect the cheque from Mr. Monday, I will give it back to Emefiele, and he will lodge the money into Dumies Oil and Gas.”
He stated that when he collects money for his boss, he takes it to his residence at Iru Close, Ikoyi, to hand over to Isioma-Omoile.
According to him: “Whenever I receive the money and take it to my bosses residence, Mr Emefiele will tell me to give it to the second defendant whenever he was not at home.
“I did not keep record of transactions because the instruction he gave me was that I should collect the money and bring the money to his house.
“The highest amount I collected is $1 million all in cash, and some weeks later, the businessman also called me $850,000, $750,000, and $400,000 cash in tranches.
“I have never been rewarded, paid, or given anything because I am doing it out of faithfulness, and he knows it, but he has never for once said ‘take this.’”
Under cross-examination by the Defence Counsel, Abdulakeem Labi-Lawal, the witness confirmed to the court that he had been working with the defendant since 2002, but he could not say the precise years or months he had seen the second defendant, but he was sure that Isioma-Omoile had been living in Emefiele’s house for some months.
According to the witness, Emefiele passed instructions to him through the second defendant and that he had been collecting cheques for Dumies Oil and Gas.
“I started collecting cheques for Dumies Oil and Gas when I was in Zenith Bank.
“I can not calculate the exact year I have been collecting the cheques, but it all started when the first defendant was the MD at Zenith Bank, and I was working at Zenith Bank,” he said.
Justice Oshodi adjourned the case until April 29 for trial and hearing of the application for a closed section.
