How bank waived due process for Emefiele’s multi-billion naira transactions – Witness

A Zenith Bank official narrated to the FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Tuesday, how due process was waived for deposits and disbursements of billions of naira on behalf of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele.

Richard Agulu, the third prosecution witness brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), identified another staff member of Zenith Bank, Macaulay Ihekoronya, a former head of operations, as one of those who granted the controversial waivers.

Mr Agulu said his superiors, including Mr Ihekoronya, gave waivers at various times for the transactions.

The witness also said he personally took such decision in certain situations, prompting the defence team to wonder at some point during Tuesday’s proceedings why he was not on trial for possible breach of banking procedures.

The witness stated that some transactions involved moving funds between accounts within the bank, based on Mr Emefiele’s instructions, and making lodgments into various accounts outside normal banking hours.

While maintaining his innocence, he said such transactions were not in line with banking procedure but were allowed through waivers.

Mr Agulu insisted that certain situations could warrant transactions to be carried out at such odd hours, but the defence suggested he should be prosecuted for it.

Mr Emefiele served as the Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank until he was appointed the CBN governor in 2014.

President Bola Tinubu removed him from office in June 2023 to face investigations and subsequently prosecutions for alleged fraud and corruption he allegedly perpetrated in office. The ex-CBN governor is currently facing charges in different courts.

In the case that came up on Tuesday, EFCC is prosecuting him on eight charges, including criminal breach of trust, conspiracy, forgery and unlawful possession of properties suspected to be proceeds of crime to the tune of ₦7.8 billion

The anti-graft agency named Mr Emefiele’s aide, Eric Ocheme (who is said to be at large), to be involved in the suspicious transactions.

The prosecution alleged that billions of naira linked to Mr Emefiele were kept in proxy accounts belonging to Kelvito Integrated Services and Ifeadigo Integrated Services in Zenith Bank.

According to the EFCC, Mr Emefiele kept billions of naira in proxy accounts and unlawfully acquired an estate with 753 housing units in Abuja while he served as CBN governor.

The commission already secured an order of final forfeiture of the estate in a separate case, although Mr Emefiele is on appeal challenging the forfeiture.

Mr Emefiele has denied any wrongdoing.

My roles in bank’s handling of Emefiele’s funds – Witness

Mr Agulu, now a staff member of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), had detailed during previous proceedings how he disbursed funds on Mr Emefiele’s behalf.

On Tuesday, under cross-examination by defence lawyer Matthew Burkaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Agulu reechoed some of the roles he played in the bank’s handling of transactions involving huge funds linked to Mr Emefiele.

He said he took instructions from Mr Emefiele to receive cash from Mr Ocheme and disburse them accordingly.

He said Mr Emefiele would usually convey the instructions to him through Mr Ocheme’s phone.

The witness, who worked in the banking sector for 17 years, told the court that the withdrawals made from the deposits he made for Mr Emefiele into Ifeabigo Integrated Services and Kelvito Integrated Services accounts were authenticated by the real account owners and signatories.

He added that he had verbal waivers from his superiors to attend to Mr Emefiele’s requests.

“My lord, for every transaction, I followed normal banking transaction procedures,” he said, mintaining he did no wrong in his handling of the transactions.

“I followed the steps for cash deposition but there are different scenarios for different transactions.

“There are waivers for some certain customers who can bring cash into the bank. I was not given a written approval but I was given a waiver to attend to the transaction of the defendant which was verbal from my superiors.”

The witness also said he supervised the transfer of N1.6 billion to MG Properties Limited on Mr Emefiele’s instruction through his personal assistant, Mr Ocheme

Who granted waivers?

Defence lawyer, Mr Burkaa questioned why the witness did not follow Zenith Bank’s operational policy for cash lodgements.

The witness became quiet for a while and told the court, “I do not want to put anyone in trouble.”

This led to trial judge Yusuf Halilu’s intervention.

“It is an issue of fairness,” the judge said and urged the witness to speak.

Yet, the witness, bowing his head slightly, kept quiet. EFCC’s prosecution lawyer, A.O Mohammed, then told the witness, “If you cannot remember to tell the court, you cannot remember.”

Mr Burkaa retorted, “You are giving the witness a hint.” This elicited laughter in the courtroom. But the judge maintained that it was not a matter of having the memory and reminded the lawyers that the witness insisted he did not want to put anyone in trouble.

While Mr Burkaa noted that it was fine if the witness did not want to put anyone in trouble, the judge asked the witness to respond to the question.

“The head of operations, then, Macaulay Ihekoronya,” the witness stated.

Zenith Bank’s operational policy

Mr Burkaa drew the court’s attention to Zenith Bank’s operational policy on Tuesday. He asked the witness to open page five of the policy.

The referenced section narrates the procedure for cash lodgements, how the cash must be counted, stamped by counters, moved to the supervising note counter, and the head teller.

Mr Burkaa then asked if the witness followed this procedure.

The witness replied, “While it (procedure) is correct, this policy is obsolete, as at the time I was leaving the bank, it was no longer in use.”

Mr Burkaa asked again if he followed any of the steps. The witness replied, “You are imposing a big burden on me. There are other intermediaries who handled some of the transactions.”

But Mr Burkaa told the witness to rest assured that he would ask those intermediaries if they followed due process. Thereafter, the witness said, “I followed the steps for cash deposits.”

However, he insisted that there were different scenarios for the lodgements of cash and the one the defence read was different.

That was when he told the court about approvals and waivers for peculiar situations such as Mr Emefiele’s alleged instructions to move funds to the companies.

He said such transactions did not happen during normal banking hours. The defence asked which of Zenith Bank’s policies allowed for the peculiar situation. “It is not a policy but a waiver,” the witness said.

Mr Agulu also said the waiver was not written but oral.

‘How I gave waiver’

In February, the witness said Chukwuma Okpala, who owned Kelvito Integrated Services, and Peter Adebayo, who owned Ifeadigo Integrated Services, authenticated certain transactions he referred to in his earlier testimony in January.

Mr Agulu admitted that he deposited money and wrote the names of Messrs Okpala and Adebayo as depositors. When asked if he considered this wrongful, EFCC’s prosecution lawyer objected, stating that the witness was not standing trial.

However, during Tueaday’s proceedings, Mr Burkaa, the defence lawyer, posed the question again, asking if Zenith Bank allowed its staff members to lodge cash on behalf of account holders. The witness maintained that certain situations called for waivers. Mr Burkaa asked him to name the officer who gave the waiver.

This time around, the Mr Agulu said, “There was no officer who authorised me to do so; in that case, I did it on my own.”

When asked if the EFCC were aware of this, the witness said, “Yes.”

“Have they arraigned you for these actions?” Mr Burkaa asked, but EFCC’s lawyer, A.O Mohammed, objected that it was the prosecution that decides who to charge.

However, the trial judge allowed the question. The witness replied, “No.”

Thereafter, Mr Burkaa applied that the court should take cognisance of the witness’ demeanour in refusing to answer questions, but Mr Mohammed insisted that it was the defence’s place to ask the court to take cognisance, but for the court to decide.

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Intervening, the judge said Mr Burkaa’s application was professional.

The judge then discharged the witness and adjourned proceedings until 3 November.

Witness’s relationship with the owner of Ifeadigo

In February, the Mr Agulu disclosed that the owner of Ifeadigo Integrated Services, Mr Adebayo, was his friend.

The company is named in the charges as one of the entities used to transfer suspicious funds on behalf of Mr Emefiele.

Mr Burkaa attempted to tender the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) status report of Rites Impex Project Limited, but EFCC objected to its admissibility on the grounds that it not certified. However, on Tuesday, the defence again presented it in court.

The CAC listed both the witness, Mr Agulu and Mr Adebayo as directors of the company. But the witness clarified that the company never took off.

The defence had sought to establish a relationship between the witness and Mr Adebayo as business partners.