Witness claims Emefiele unfairly awarded contracts to his wife and brother-in-law

Godwin Emefiele awarded contracts to companies owned by his wife and brother-in-law. Emefiele is standing trial on a 20-count amended charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja.

He allegedly committed criminal acts of breach of trust, forgery, conspiracy to obtain by false pretenses and obtaining money by false pretenses when he was boss of the apex bank.

The EFCC alleged that the former CBN boss falsified a document titled: Re: Presidential Directive on Overseas Election Observation Missions dated January 26, 2023, with reference No. SGF.43/L .01/201 and claimed it came from the office. of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (AGF).

Furthermore, he is also accused of using his position as governor of the CBN to confer an unfair and corrupt advantage on two companies; “April 1616 Nigeria Ltd and Architekon Nigeria Ltd”.

Agboroan investigator from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) who testified earlier was cross-examined by Emefiele’s lawyer, Matthew BurkaSAN.

When asked whether the defendant had conferred an unfair and corrupt advantage on himself, he replied: “he conferred with Saadatu Yaro, who is a public official working under him. He also conferred with his wife and his brother-in-law.”

When asked if Emefiele alone could award and approve the contracts, he said the contracts were approved by the defendant. Answering if there was no difference between CBN and Emefiele, he replied: “The difference is that the accused was an employee of CBN.”

When asked whether the respondent was a member of the tender committee or the purchasing department, he replied that he did not know.

“We have limited our investigation to him, his wife, his relatives and his associates.

“Our findings revealed that the defendant was neither a director nor a shareholder nor a signatory to accounts at April 1616 Limited or Architekon Nigeria Limited.”

He also admitted that there was no evidence of any payment made to Emefiele by these companies in the course of discharging his duties at the CBN.

When also asked if during their investigation they interviewed people from the CBN to ascertain whether the two companies carried out the works they were contracted to do, the witness replied. “Yes”.

However, when asked whether the team had stated this fact in its final report, the witness replied that he did not remember if this was the case. Agboro being cited in evidence by the EFCC lawyer, Rotimi OyedepoSAN presented several documents on March 11, including company registration documents and awards as well as payments for contracts relating to both forms.

He added that documents from his team, comprising individuals from the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Services (DSS), showed that although a director of “April 1616”, Yarois a public officer in the CBN, wife of Emefiele, Marguerite Omoyile and his brother-in-law, Mac Congo, were directors of Architekten.

Judge Hamza Muazu adjourned the case until Tuesday, for re-examination of the witness.