……EFCC: Emefiele Built Forex System That Shut Out Ordinary Nigerians
An investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Alvan Gurumnaan on Thursday told a Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja that the embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, acquired multi-billion naira properties in proxy while in office.
Mr Emefiele is facing a 19-count charge of alleged gratification, corrupt demands and abuse of office, involving transactions valued at 4.5 billion dollars and N2.8 billion.
His co-defendant, Henry Omoile, is standing trial on a three-count charge of alleged unlawful acceptance of gifts.
Mr Gurumnaan, in the continuation of his evidence in chief led by the Federal Director of Public Prosecutions, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, said Mr Emefiele’s statement was recorded in the course of the intelligence received by the special operation team which he led.
He said the investigation revealed that Mr Emefiele used his office as the governor of central bank to build a system that did not allow ordinary Nigerians and business people who were in dire need of foreign exchange to access such funds.
According to him, due to the difficulties in accessing the funds, some desperate individuals had to bend to some special arrangements that were made by Mr Emefiele before they could access the funds.
The witness said: “One of those examples was how a company had to pay millions of dollars to the first defendant through his staff, Monday Osazuwa.
“Osazuwa admitted to us in the course of investigation that he received about 17 million US dollars from the company and gave it to the second defendant.
“The second defendant was the one who later took the money to the first defendant.
“Furthermore, in the course of investigation, we found out the first defendant used his office to receive such amount.”
The witness also highlighted various properties which were owned by the first defendant through a proxy.
The witness told the court that the first defendant used associates to procure numerous properties found beyond his legitimate income as the governor of central bank.
According to him, several courts have given judgments in favour of EFCC, forfeiting assets and properties estimated at about hundreds of billions of naira, belonging to Mr Emefiele.
He said: “The first defendant used associates who also admitted to receiving money on his behalf, one of them is a lawyer called Ifeanyi Omeke, our investigation led to his office and a sum of over 2 million US dollars cash were recovered.
“This same Omeke serves as a secretary to several companies and he admitted to being a front for the first defendant.
“We recovered a set of twin duplexes in Lekki Phase 1 and also two mansions in Queens Drive Ikoyi, Lagos.”
Meanwhile, counsel for the two defendants, Olalekan Ojo, SAN, and Kazeem Gbadamosi, SAN, objected and argued that the testimony of the witness was not relevant to the charge before the court.
But, Justice Rahman Oshodi overruled the objection and held that the defendants would be at liberty to cross examine the witness.
The witness also told the court that during the investigation and the recording of the first defendant’s statement, he was allowed to respond to some of the findings but he did not.
Mr Gurumnaan said: “Although he did not address the allegation, our investigation found that the first defendant purchased many other properties through proxies, and I have mentioned some of them.
“We also discovered that the first defendant was building a factory in his hometown in Agbor, Delta State, which has also been forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“There is also a property, my Lord, on Adekunle Lawal Street in Ikoyi, Lagos, which the first defendant purchased. It had belonged to the Nigerian Printing and Minting Company, where he served as chairman of the board, and he sold the property to himself.
“The property, a block of eight flats in Ikoyi, has also been forfeited to the government and during our investigation, another warehouse belonging to the first defendant was recovered in Ogun State, on the outskirts of Lagos.”
The witness said the warehouse contained several containers worth an estimated hundreds of billions of naira and there was an 11-story building under construction, comprising about 94 luxury flats also belonging to Emefiele.
Mr Gurumnaan also told the court that an estate containing about 750 houses belonging to the first defendant was also recovered in the Lokogoma district of Abuja.
Justice Oshodi adjourned the case until Nov. 13 for continuation of trial.
