A prosecution witness said Tuesday that some suspects confessed to the illegality of $6.23 million cash withdrawal from the vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) during Godwin Emefiele’s tenure as the governor of the bank.
Eloho Okpoziakpo, who led an investigation into a host of allegations against Mr Emefiele, testified at the FCT High Court in Abuja as the 14 prosecution witness in the former CBN govenor’s trial.
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He said there were approving documents that facilitated the alleged fraudulent withdrawal. The $6.23 million allegation is part of the charges over which which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Mr Emefiele.
“The money was fraudulently taken because some of the suspects we interrogated confessed; Maishanu and the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) denied ever requesting the payment,” said the witness, who led the team of investigators that interrogated Mr Emefiele
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Mr Okpoziakpo also referenced a letter from the SGF office purportedly forwarding a presidential approval pf $6.23million “for the elections observers commission.”
The EFCC is prosecuting Mr Emefiele on 20 amended counts, including criminal breach of trust, forgery, obtaining by false pretence, conspiracy to commit forgery, procurement fraud, and conspiracy to commit a felony.
The charges also comprised the alleged fraudulent payout of $6.23 million from the CBN vault in Abuja in 2023 under the guise of payments for phoney foreign election observers’ expenses.
Mr Emefiele denied all the allegations.
Approval documents
Mr Okpoziakpo, who was led in evidence by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo, explained that the alleged letter from the SGF asked for the release of $6.23 million.
Mr Oyedepo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), asked the witness to focus on the document and asked him to disclose his findings.
But Mr Emefiele’s lawyer, Matthew Burkaa, also a SAN, criticised the style of evidence presentation. He argued that there was no point reading from the documents that were already before the court.
Responding, Mr Oyedepo said he asked the witness to only explain.
The trial judge, Hamza Muazu, cautioned the lawyers to make the best use of judicial time.
Thereafter, the witness explained that the document is a directive “purported to be from the then president (Muhammadu Buhari) to the SGF to release the sum.”
He said it was addressed to Mr Emefiele as the governor of the CBN.
He said the “the request was honoured, it was treated and the money was paid.”
Also, the witness told the court how some documents were recovered from the branch of CBN (Abuja) where the money was cashed.
According to Mr Okpoziakpo, the documents include details of the amount of money that was paid out on 8 February 2023 and a memo from the Director of Banking Services Department to the Bank Controller, Abuja.
The purpose of the memo was to give approval and instruct the bank to pay the $6.23 million.
Mr Oyedepo asked the witness to make some confirmations from the documents. Mr Burkaa again objected, arguing that the prosecution was providing the witness evidence despite being an investigative police officer of the case.
READ ALSO: Another witness testifies on $6.23m withdrawal from CBN for phoney 2023 election monitoring exercise
But Mr Oyedepo responded, “We take exception to the aspersion that the defence is casting on the prosecution.”
He urged the judge to refuse Mr Burkaa’s objection and see it as a ploy to prevent the prosecution from discharging its duty.
“The witness without documentary support is merely telling tales,” he said.
Intervening in the exchange, the judge said yhe witness was providing evidence but requested that the prosecution not to ask details of the contents of documents already before the court.
The judge adjourned the matter until 2 July.
