Witness to Court: I Have No Written/Video Record of Money Collected for Emefiele

Wale Igbintade

A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of the former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, yesterday, told an Ikeja Special Offences Court that he had no written or video records of the monies he allegedly collected for Emefiele.
Osazuwa, an employee of CBN, and a dispatch rider, had earlier testified before the court, but was recalled for cross-examination by the defence counsel.
Osazuwa, who was re-cross-examined by Emefiele’s counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), told Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Ikeja Special Offences Court that he did not keep any records of the monies he allegedly collected for the former CBN governor, neither did he demand for acknowledgement letter from him.
Emefiele is standing trial over alleged abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on April 8, 2024 arraigned Emefiele on 23 counts bordering on abuse of office, accepting gratifications, corrupt demand, receiving property fraudulently obtained, and conferring corrupt advantage.
The second defendant, Henry Isioma-Omoile, was arraigned on three counts bordering on acceptance of gifts by agents.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Emefiele was admitted to N50 million bail with two sureties in like sum.
The court held that the sureties must be gainfully employed and have three years of tax payment with the Lagos State government.
Oshodi allowed the second defendant, Isioma-Omoile, to continue with the N1 million earlier granted to him by Justice Olufunke Sule-Hamzat of the Yaba High Court.
At the commencement of  trial on April 12, 2024, Osazuwa, who was led in evidence in chief by the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), narrated to Oshodi how Emefiele, on different occasions, instructed him to collect the sum of $3 million cash in tranches.
He said, “The highest amount I collected was $1 million, all in cash, and some weeks later, the businessman also called me, and I collected $850,000, $750,000, and $400,000 cash in tranches.
“I did not keep records of transactions because the instructions he (Emefiele) gave me was that I should collect the money and bring it to his house.
“Whenever I receive the money and take it to my boss’ residence, Mr. Emefiele will tell me to give it to the second defendant (Omoile) whenever he is not at home.”
Osazuwa had testified that he knew Emefiele, who was his boss while at Zenith Bank before he later joined him at CBN.
The witness testified that he was a dispatch rider at Zenith Bank since 2001 before he joined CBN as a contract staff in 2014.
He also told the court that he was later appointed as a senior supervisor (full-time) in recording and filing documents, while working in the governor’s office in Lagos.
“I perform as a senior supervisor, recording and filing with other official roles,” he said.
When he was cross-examined by the first defence counsel, Mr. Abdulakeem Labi-Lawal, he said Emefiele passed instructions to him through the second defendant and that he had been collecting cheques for Dumies Oil and Gas.
After calling four more witnesses to testify in the case, the defence counsel urged the court to recall the first prosecution witness.
The counsel of the second defendant, Isioma-Omoile, Mr Kazeem Gbadamosi (SAN), notified the court of a motion on notice dated May 6, 2024.
Gbadamosi subsequently sought the indulgence of the court to recall the first prosecution, Osazuwa.
On May 18, 2024, Oshodi granted the request of the defence to recall the first prosecution witness, Osazuwa.

At the resumed hearing of the cross-examination yesterday, Emefiele’s counsel, Ojo, asked Osazuwa if at any time during his statement with EFCC he produced to the operatives any written instructions by Emefiele to him in the course of unofficial assignment he ran for the first defendant. He answered that he wrote it in his statement.
Asked if he provided any documents to the EFCC showing where he recorded the monies he allegedly collected for Emefiele, he said, “There was no document produced. The instructions given to me by the first defendant was that I should not write anything down.”
He also said that he did not have a document by either the first or second defendants acknowledging the receipt of money from him.

Asked if he knew the importance of keeping recordings of financial transactions, the witness said it was for record keeping and future reference, but he said he did not keep any records.

“I did not produce any record, I obeyed the instructions based on the money I collected for him,” he said.

The defence counsel then applied that the witness be given the extra-judicial statements he made on February 13th,15th, and 23rd, 2024, before the EFCC, to refresh his memory.

After going through the statement, Osazuwa said, “I did not state it in my statement, but he instructed me not to record it. He instructed me that whenever he was not around, I should just go straight and give it to the second defendant.”

Asked how long he was detained in EFCC’s custody, he said he was detained for one week and thereafter granted administrative bail.

Osazuwa told the court that there was no witness when he handed over the money to the first defendant (Emefiele).

During cross-examination by the second defence counsel, Adeyinka Kotoye (SAN), he asked the witness to clarify where he stated in his evidence that he and the second defendant counted the money in the envelope he collected for Emefiele.

Osazuwa said, “It was Mr. Raja who counted the money.”

Earlier, the fifth prosecution witness, a business relationship manager with Zenith Bank Plc, Mrs. Ifeoma Ogbonnaya, in the conclusion of her testimony, said she gave the statements of accounts of Comec, Limelight, and Amswin Resources Limited addressed to Mrs. Margaret Emefiele (Emefiele’s wife) to the regulators.

Ogbonnaya also said that of all the documents available to her as the representative of Zenith Bank, there was nothing in the document connecting Emefiele.

Ogbonnaya further told the court that she had no dealings with the second defendant (Henry Isioma-Omoile).

She said, “I do not have any relationship with the second defendant on any of the three accounts mentioned.”

In his testimony, the sixth prosecution witness, John Ogah, told the court that he was a staff of Zenith Bank, where he worked as secretary to Emefiele when he was Managing Director of the bank.

Led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), the witness stated that he later joined the Central Bank of Nigeria, still as secretary (in charge of administration) to the governor of CBN.

He said he was responsible for receiving all internal and external mails for the CBN governor and also directed his attention to them.

“I worked in the CBN governor’s office and took instructions from the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele’, he added.

Asked if he knew one Adetola John, the witness said, ” Yes, I know Adetola; he was my colleague. We worked together in the CBN governor’s office; he was in the Lagos office, while I was in the Abuja office.”

He further told the court that while working for the first defendant (Emefiele), he was asked to give documents to the account officer of three companies, namely, Limelight, Comec, and Answin Resources Limited in Zenith Bank.

He said, “I scanned the document and sent it to the account officer of three companies, namely, Limelight, Comec, and Answin Resources Limited in Zenith Bank, through his official email.”

The matter was adjourned till October 30 for continuation of trial.