By Abiola Olawale
Several witnesses have continued to appear before the Federal High Court in Ikeja, Lagos State, to narrate how the embattled immediate past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), allegedly used his position to launder several sums of money.
The latest witness to appear before the presiding judge, Justice Rahman Oshodi, is a contractor, the managing director of The Source Computers Limited, Mr. Victor Onyejiuwa, who recounted how he was allegedly pressured to pay $600,000 for the award of a contract.
Onyejiuwa, led in evidence by the Counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Rotimi Oyedepo told the court that his company offers services to private and public enterprises.
He said his company deploys hardware and software-tailored solutions that address Security, Network, Storage, Backup Solutions, Data Protection and Recovery, Virtualization, Data Center Solutions, ICT Training & Education Services, and a host of other ICT needs.
The witness told the court that his company offered services to the CBN by providing information and communication technologies assistance to the apex bank between 2014 and 2019.
He also revealed that his company was awarded at least five contracts between 2014 and 2019.
Speaking further during the court proceedings, the witness said sometime in 2017, his company was awarded an “enterprise storage and servers” contract by the CBN.
The contractor said after the contract was executed by his company, he was allegedly approached by John Ayoh, a former director at the CBN who testified as the second prosecution witness that the “management needs something” from the contract.
Onyejiuwa alleged that Ayoh told him that if he did not comply and give the management something, the funds meant for the contract would be delayed by the apex bank.
In his words: “After the contract had been executed, I was accosted by Mr John, saying the management was requesting something from the transaction,” he said.
“He said there was pressure on him. I told him that our payment was being delayed. He told me that if I didn’t accede to his request, my payment would not be approved.
“After several back and forths, for him to see reasons with me, on why I needed to get paid, and my obligations with my partners, I succumbed to his pressure.
“I was able to organize the sum of $400k and $200k to facilitate payment of the contract funds. Within two or three weeks after, payment was made. That is what happened.”
When asked by Oyedepo to mention the amount that was allocated to the contracts executed for the CBN, he said that the highest contract sum was $1.2 bn in 2017 and late 2018 when the naira traded at N360/$ 1.
He also told the court that there were other small payments of N24m and N17m.
After Onyejiuwa’s testimony, Counsel to Emefiele, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olalekan Ojo, asked for an adjournment to enable him to cross-examine the witness at the next court sitting.
Justice Oshodi adjourned the case till May 17, 2024, for cross-examination of the witness and continuation of trial.
The New Diplomat recalls that this latest development is coming after a dispatch rider, Monday Osazuwa, had narrated how he allegedly picked up over $3m cash in tranches for Emefiele.
Osazuwa testified that Emefiele allegedly contacted him to pick up $1m, $850,000, $750,000, and $400,000 cash in tranches.
It would be recalled also that Emefiele has been facing stormy waters and is being tried for alleged abuse of office and fraud to the tune of $4.5bn and N2.8bn.
EFCC slammed a 26-count charge against Emefiele and one of his allies, Omole.
The charge, marked ID/23787c/2024, dated April 3, 2024, was filed by Mr Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN).
EFCC alleged that Emefiele committed abuse of office between 2022 and 2023, in Lagos, of abuse of office.
Emefiele is facing trial on counts bordering on accepting gratification, accepting gifts through agents, corruption, receipt of property fraudulently obtained, and conferring corrupt advantage on his associates contrary to the Corrupt Practices Act of 2000.
The commission alleged that Emefiele “directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office, as the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary act, to wit: allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $2,136,391,737.33 without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians.”
