Kemisola Oye
AN Assistant Manager with Zenith Bank Plc, Ms Ifeoma Ogbonna has told a Lagos Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja that the embattled former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele through the bank (Zenith Bank Plc) moved multimillion naira to his wife, Mrs Magret Emefiele.
She mentioned the firms through which the funds were channeled to include Answabian Resources and Solution, Limelight Dimensional Service Limited, Omec Support Service Limited and Mango Farm.
Led in evidence by the lead counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC), Mr Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), the fifth prosecution witness (Ms Ogbonnaya) narrated to Justice Rahman Oshodi that she received instructions from Margret Emefiele to transfer funds to firms from Zenith Bank accounts.
It would be recalled that Emefiele is standing trial over abuse of office, alleged $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion fraud while in office. He was charged alongside his co-defendant Henry Omoile.
However, in her testimony, Ms Ogbonna said she joined Zenith Bank Plc in 2006 as a Business Relationship Manager (also known as Marketer). She said she joined the marketing team in 2017 became a Manage Customer Portfolio.
“We also collaborate with other departments responsible for the mobilisation of deposit funds. Before then, I worked in the Customer Service Department as the Team Lead at the Opebi Branch. But currently, I am an Assistant Manager in the bank.”
Ms Ogbonnaya further stated that she has no personal relationship with the former CBN governor, Mr Emefiele.
She noted that whenever Madam Emefiele sends them instructions or sends instructions through the other two people who worked with them, she usually confirms it from her. She also said she usually chats with her via WhatsApp.
She, however, said that she managed the various company accounts through which the multimillion Naira was sent.
“Mrs Margaret Emefiele, the ex-CBN governor’s wife, is the direct beneficiary of the accounts. The companies sent transfer instructions to my email and Margaret Emefiele is the beneficial owner of the accounts.
“All transactions made in the accounts were confirmed by Mrs Emefiele before they were processed.
“She sends transfer instructions directly to my official email address with Zenith Bank or sends two other persons to act on her behalf but I still receive approval from her.”
She said Limelight managed facilities of the CBN located in the Alakija area of Lagos, and noted that all transactions pertaining to power and fixing things that were not working were always done by the vendors.
According to her, “So far Answabian was basically used to provide diesel to their vendors. They have a printing and minting company located at Ikoyi. For Kome, they were also facilities for the CBN guest house in Ikoyi.”
She said the bundles of documents which entailed the various transactions were printed from her desktop computer.
“The documents were sent to my email and when investigation started, I was requested to print all the documents for the law enforcement agency which I did. I printed them from the office desktop and took them to the Compliance Officer.
“I also have a certificate confirming that these documents were printed from Zenith Bank.”
The prosecution therefore tendered the bundles of documents which entailed the various transactions that took place between the witness and Emefiele’s wife.
The court thereafter admitted in evidence the certificate of identification, and bundle of printed documents, following no objections from the defence.
The witness thereafter spoke about the documents and briefly explained the inflow and outflow of funds purportedly sent from CBN through Zenith Bank to Emefiele’s wife.
Ms Ogbonna further told the court that between 9 and 11 March 2015, the account received cash flow from CBN to the tune of N1,792,593 and N18,869,400.
“On 22 February 2021, there was a cash flow of N42,988,758.75 from CBN, on 21 July 2022, there was a cash flow of N37,279,964.70. On 21 October 2022, there was a credit flow of N44,641,077.60, on 10 May 2023, there was a cash flow of N93,100,000, from CBN, among others.”
Emefiele’s counsel, Mr Olalekan Ojo (SAN) and the second defence counsel, Mr Kazeem Gbadamosi (SAN) did not object to the admissibility of the documents.
The prosecution also sought the indulgence of the court for the witness to write down the number in which she used to have conversations with Mrs Emefiele on an A4 paper and was admitted in evidence.
The witness, however, said that she could not remember some digits of the number offhand but she could recall it through her mobile phone.
This was vehemently opposed by the two defendants’ counsel, who argued that the witness could not get the number through her phone.
Earlier in the proceeding, Justice Oshodi had in a ruling granted the application filed by the second ddefendant’scounsel, Kazeem Gbadamosi (SAN) to recall the first prosecution witness, Monday Osazuwa.
Justice Oshodi subsequently adjourned the case to 10 July 2024 for continuation of trial.
Eighteen-Eleven Media