‘Abuse of office’: Emefiele, wife aren’t signatories to companies’ accounts, witness tells court

Ifeoma Ogbonnaya, an assistant manager with Zenith Bank, says Godwin Emefiele and Margaret, his wife, are not signatories to the accounts that received funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Ogbonnaya appeared before the Ikeja special offences court in Lagos on Wednesday for the cross examination of her previous testimony.

On Tuesday, the assistant manager was presented as the fifth prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Emefiele, former governor of the apex bank.

Emefiele and Henry Omoile, his co-defendant, are currently facing trial on a 26-count charge bordering on abuse of office.

The former CBN governor and Omoile pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

During the court proceedings on Tuesday, Ogbonnaya told the court that the apex bank under Emefiele transferred funds to Margaret through various companies — using Zenith Bank.

The assistant manager said she was receiving instructions from Margaret regarding the accounts.

The assistant manager added that the accounts received cash from the apex bank to the tune of N18.9 million and N1.8 million at different times in March 2015.

Ogbonnaya said the companies that received the cash were Amswing Resources and Solution, Limelight Dimensional Service Ltd, Omec Support Service Ltd, and Mango Farm.

“Limelight manages the facilities of CBN, located at Alakija and all transactions pertaining to power and fixing things that are not working,” she said.

THE CROSS EXAMINATION

On Wednesday, the assistant manager was cross examined by Olalekan Ojo, Emefiele’s counsel.

The witness told the court that the signatories to the companies accounts are Bruce Olotu Augustina, Omoile Augustina, Oriekose Augustina and Ibrahim Oluwadamilare Taofeek.

She disclosed that the companies have no list of directors, adding that transactions would not be processed until Emefiele’s wife had approved.

“One Mrs Augustina is the signatory to the accounts but I still maintain that Mrs Margaret Emefiele gave me instructions through phone calls, WhatsApp chats and my official email,” the witness said.

“I saved Mrs Emefiele’s number as ‘margo’ on my phone and she has several numbers but I can only remember her foreign number.

“The phone numbers are saved on my mobile device, IPhone 11, which are for my contact, both personal and official.”

The assistant bank manager said Emefiele’s name and that of his wife did not appear as shareholders or signatories to the corporate accounts of the companies.

After the cross examination, Rahman Oshodi, the presiding judge, adjourned the case to October 28 for continuation of trial.