A prosecution witness with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Alvan Gurumnaan has further narrated to Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos State Special Offences Court, Ikeja how embattled Former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, allegedly acquired multi-billion naira properties by proxy while in office.
The Head of Special Duty 77 (Special Operations Team) who is further testifying also disclosed that the defendant used his office as the Governor of the apex bank to build system that did not allow ordinary Nigerians and business people who were in dire need of forex exchange to access such funds to go about their businesses.
This formed part of the evidence, the witness gave at the ongoing trial on Thursday while being in evidence-in-chief by the Federal Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN).
According to Gurumnaan, due to the difficulties in accessing the funds, the business men had to bend to some special arrangements that were made by Emefiele before they can access the funds.
“One of those examples was how a company had to pay million of dollars to the first defendant through his staff, Monday Osazuwa.
“Osazuwa admitted to us in the course of investigation that he received about 17 million US dollars from the company and gave it to the second defendant sometime.
“The second defendant (Henry Omoile) was the one who later took the money to the first defendant.
“Furthermore, in the course of investigation, we found out the first defendant used his office to receive such amount and another example is Source Computer where the managing director of the company was compelled to bring out money to the first defendant before his contact fees were paid.”
The investigator further highlighted various properties which were owned by the first defendant though proxy.
Gurumnaan told the court that Emefiele used associates to procure numerous properties found beyond his legitimate income as the governor of central bank.
Emefiele is standing trial on a 19-count charge bordering on receiving gratification and corrupt demand preferred against him by the EFCC.
His co-defendant, Henry Omoile, is facing a three-count charge bordering on unlawful acceptance of gifts by agents.
According to the prosecution witness, several courts have given judgements in favour of EFCC, forfeiting assets and properties estimated about N100 of billions, belonging to Emefiele.
He said, “He accepted and came to court that the properties belong to him.
“The first defendant used associates who also admitted to receiving money on his behalf, one of them is a lawyer called Ifeanyin Omeke, whose our investigation led to his office and a sum of over $2 million cash were recovered.
“This same Omeke serves as a secretary to several companies and he admitted to being a front for the first defendant.
“We recovered a set of twin duplexes in Lekki Phase 1 and also two mansions in Queens Drive Ikoyi, Lagos.”
Subsequently, Counsel to both defendants, Mr Ojo Olalekan (SAN) and Mr. Kazeem Gbadamosi objected and argued that the testimony of the witness was not relevant to the charge before the court.
The trial judge in a short ruling, overruled the objection and held that the defendants would be at liberty to cross examine the witness.
Gurumnaan also told the court that during the investigation and the recording of the first defendant’s statement, he was allowed to respond to some of the findings but he did not.
He said: “Although he did not address the allegation, our investigation found that the first defendant purchased many other properties through proxies, and I have mentioned some of them.
“We also discovered that the first defendant was building a factory in his home town in Agbor, Delta State, which has also been forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“There is also a property, my Lord, on Adekunle Lawal Street in Ikoyi, Lagos, which the first defendant purchased. It had belonged to the Nigerian Printing and Minting Company, where he served as chairman of the board, and he sold the property to himself.
“The property, a block of eight flats in Ikoyi, has also been forfeited to the government and during our investigation, another warehouse belonging to the first defendant was recovered in Ogun State, on the outskirts of Lagos.”
The investigator said the warehouse contained several containers worth an estimated hundreds of billions of naira and there was an 11-story building under construction, comprising about 94 luxury flats also belonging to Emefiele.
According to the witness, Emefiele also told the court that the defendant owned an estate containing about 750 houses which were recovered in the Lokogoma district of Abuja.
Thereafter, Justice Oshodi adjourned the case until November 13 for continuation of trial.
