Witness provides details of contracts allegedly awarded ‘corruptly’ by Emefiele

A prosecution witness, on Monday, detailed how former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele, who who is standing trial on fraud and corruption charges, allegedly awarded 45 contracts, cumulatively worth billions of naira, to family members, including his wife, Margaret Emefiele, and associates.

Agboro Michael, an ICPC investigator, identified April 1616 Investment Limited, owned by Sa’adatu Ramalan Yero, a CBN employee and Mr Emefiele’s associate, as one of the two beneficiaries of the slew of contracts. The other, according to the witness, is Architekon Nigeria Limited, owned by Mr Emefiele’s wife, Margaret Emefiele. One of Margaret’s brothers was also said to have benefitted from some of the contracts.

“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,” Mr Michael said in his testimony as the seventh prosecution witness at Monday’s hearing of the charges against Mr Emefiele at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja.

Mr Michael, who was part of a team of investigators drawn from various agencies to investigate Mr Emefiele’s activities as CBN governor, added: “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.”

Mr Michael told the court that the inter-agency investigation involving the ICPC, EFCC, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), and the State Security Service (SSS) showed that the contracts were awarded by Mr Emefiele to confer corrupt advantages on the beneficiaries.

Mr Emefiele, who was the governor of the CBN for nearly a decade, faces corruption charges preferred against him after President Bola Tinubu removed him from office last June.

He is being prosecuted on amended 20 counts of conferment of corrupt advantages, conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, forgery and obtaining by false pretence to the tune of $6.23 million.

Mr Emefiele denied the charges during his re-arraignment in January.

At the continuation of hearing in the case on Monday, Mr Michael was led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Rotimi Oyedepo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported part of the developments from Monday’s hearing before EFCC shared more highlights of Mr Michael’s testimony in a statement by its spokesperson, Dele Oyewale.

Key contracts

The contracts awarded to the companies, according to Mr Michael’s testimony, varied from the supply of vehicles to house renovations. The testimony on Monday centred on contracts awarded in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Vehicles supplied to CBN under the controversial contracts awarded to the companies by Mr Emefiele, according to the witness, comprised Toyota Avalon cars, Toyota Land Cruiser V8 and Toyota Hilux units.

The other contracts listed by the witness comprised landscaping of the CBN governor’s residence at over N39 million, procurement of furniture items at N97 million, procurement of a power line at the same CBN governor’s residence at over N68 million and renovation of the CBN Governors’ residence at No 2. Global Road, Ikoyi Lagos.

Payments

Highlighting how Mr Emefiele approved payments for the contracts, the witness said: “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, Mr Michael said in ‘F3’, the defendant approved 1,085,700,000 (One Billion, Eighty-five million, Seven Hundred thousand) 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 (Ninety-Nine Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira), 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 relating to a transaction which took place on 6 November 2021, Mr Michael said: “It is a credit into the account from the CBN to the tune of N41, 943, 400, 34 (Forty-one Million, Nine Hundred and Forty-three Thousand, Four hundred and Thirty four kobo).

“Page 87 was also a credit in April 2016 from the CBN, N304, 853, 50 (Three Hundred and Four Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty Three Thousand naira, Fifty kobo).

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“26 January, 2021, April 1616 Investment Nigeria limited also received N304, 853, 720, 55 (Three Hundred and Four Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty Three Thousand Seven Hundred and Twenty Naira Fifty-Five kobo) from the CBN.

“On the 10 February 2021, the CBN paid N201,023,323,31 (Two Hundred and One Million, Twenty-Three Thousand, Three Hundred and Twenty-Three Naira, Thirty-One kobo).

“The approval of payment of March 24, 2021 was N304,843,720,85, April 27, 2021 was 60,976,744,17 (Sixty Million, Nine hundred and Seventy Six thousand, Seven hundred and forty-four naira, Seventeen kobo) May 31, 2021 was a payment of 60,976,744,17 (Sixty Million, Nine hundred and Seventy Six thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty-four Naira, Seventeen kobo), and February 21, 2021 was a payment of N50,547,508,30 (Fifty Million, Five Hundred and Forty-Seven Thousand, Five Hundred and Eight Naira Thirty kobo) were equally approved by the defendant.”

The witness further told the court that the team recorded the defendant’s statement under caution and the video was 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 (Seventy-Three Million, Eight Hundred Thousand to her company April 1616 Investment Nigeria limited where she is a director, and equally a director in the CBN.

“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 (Thirty-Nine Million, Forty Six Thousand Naira.”

Continuing, Mr Michael said a contract to procure furniture items was also awarded to Mr Emefiele’s brother in-law in the sum of N97 million, as well as a contract to procure a power line at the same CBN governor’s residence at over N68 million (N68,568,740).

Cross-examination

During cross-examination, defence counsel Matthew Burkaa, a SAN, questioned why it was only his client that was being prosecuted out of many whose signatures appeared on the memos.

In response, the witness said the defendant was on trial because he was the approving authority, while others only minuted on the documents to justify the process, and did not have the power to make such payments and approvals.

Mr Burkaa sought to tender the defendant’s statement at the Nigerian Police Force before the court, but Mr Oyedepo objected, stating it was a public document and needed to be certified before it can be tendered as an exhibit. The defence lawyer then withdrew the document and promised to provide the true certified copy at the next adjourned date.

Mr Burkaa also asked Mr Michael about the CBN’s contract award procedure.

In his response, the witness listed the Tenders Board, Contract Approval Council, and Committee of Board of Governors as the three CBN bodies that process contract bids received by the bank.

When asked if the contracts in question in the case passed through the statutory bodies at the bank, Mr Michael answered in the affirmative.

He said the contracts were vetted through the procurement department of the bank.

Similarly, Mr Michael said he did not find evidence by way of official communication from Mr Emefiele recommending any of the two companies for the award of contracts.

The witness added that all documents containing payment approvals issued by Mr Emefiele were done after certificates of completion of contracts were issued by the CBN to Architekon Nigeria Limited and April1616 Investment Limited.

The defence lawyer further asked Mr Michael if it was wrong to pay the companies for contracts that were duly awarded and executed.

He said, “I cannot say if the contacts were done or not.”

After the cross-examination, the judge, Hamza Muazu, adjourned the trial until 25 April for further hearing