Agboro Michael, Prosecution Witness 7 in the trial of a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, on Monday told Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja how Emefiele allegedly signed and approved award and payments of contracts to April 1616 Investment Limited and Architekon Nigeria Limited, companies that allegedly belong to Sa’adatu Ramalan Yero; his wife, Margaret Emefiele; and his in-law respectively.
The witness is an investigator with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission.
Michael was led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN).
He was a part of the investigation team that comprised the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, ICPC, Code of Conduct Bureau, Department of State Services and Nigeria Police.
Michael testified on the count-charge of abuse of office and conferring an unfair advantage to a public officer and relatives, preferred against Emefiele.
He said: “My lord, these companies were awarded about 45 contracts to supply Toyota Vehicles.
“We were worried as investigators as to how a particular company would get bids concurrently to supply vehicles.
“We did our investigation, and discovered that the company was not even accredited by Toyota.
“In the companies my lord, one has Sa’adatu’s husband and siblings as directors, and the other one has Sa’adatu as the director of the company while she is still a civil servant.
“Document ‘F1’ shows the signature and approval of the defendant to pay the sum of N854,700,000 (Eight Hundred Fifty-Four Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira).
“His signature was number three on the document.”
Testifying further, Michael said in ‘F3’, the defendant approved N1,85,700,000 for the supply of 47 units of Toyota Hilux.
While ‘F4’ was the defendants approval to purchase for the bank an armoured Toyota Avalon car at the cost of N99,900,000 and ‘F5’ was the approval to procure two units of Toyota Hilux for the bank, and all were bought from April 1616 Investment Limited.
Speaking on the findings of the investigative team on exhibit P26, page 86 of 107 on November 6, 2021. Michael said: “It is a credit into the account from the CBN to the tune of N41,943,400,34.
He added: “Page 87 was also a credit in April 2016 from the CBN, N304,853,50.
“26 January, 2021, April 1616 Investment Nigeria Limited also received N304,853,720,55 from the CBN.
“On the 10th of February, 2021, the CBN paid N201,23,323,31.
“The approval of payment of March 24, 2021 was N304,843,720,85, April 27, 2021 was N60,976,744,17, May 31, 2021 was a payment of N60,976,744,17, and February 21, 2021 was a payment of N50,547,508,30 were equally approved by the defendant.
The witness further told the court that the team recorded the defendant’s statement under caution and video recorded in a conducive environment.
Testifying further, the witness said: “In 2019, again, we discovered the defendant also used his office and position to confer a corrupt advantage to one of the staff of CBN, Sa’adatu Ramalan Yero to supply one unit of Toyota Land Cruiser V8 at the cost of N73,800,000 to her company April 1616 Investment Nigeria Limited, where she is a director, and equally a director in the CBN.
He added: “Again my lord, the defendant also approved the payment of renovation of the CBN Governors’ residence at No 2. Global road, Ikoyi, Lagos to a company named Architekon Nigeria Limited, where his wife and brother-in-law are both directors.
“Sometime in 2020, the defendant used his position as CBN Governor to confer on his wife and brother in-law corrupt advantage by awarding their company landscaping of the CBN governor’s residence in the sum of N39,46,000.”
Continuing, Michael said a contract to procure furniture items was also awarded to his brother-in-law in the sum of N97,000,000 and again a contract to procure a power line at the same CBN Governor’s residence in the sum of N68,568,740.
While cross examining the witness, counsel to the defendant, Matthew Burkaa (SAN), queried the witness that though there are many signatories in the memo, only his client was on trial.
In response, the witness told him that the defendant was on trial because he was the approving authority, while others only minuted on the documents to justify the process, and didn’t have the power to make such payments and approvals.
Burkaa also wanted to tender the defendant’s statement at the Nigeria Police Force before the court, but Oyedepo objected, stating it was a public document and needed to be certified before it can be tendered as an exhibit.
Burkaa then withdrew the document and promised to provide the true certified copy at the next adjourned date.
Justice Muazu thereafter adjourned the matter till April 25 and 26, 2024 for continuation of trial.