Michael Agboro, seventh prosecution witness (PW7) in the trial of the ex-governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has told an FCT High Court in Maitama that Emefiele conferred unfair advantage on his wife in the award of contract.
Emefiele is standing trial on an alleged 20-count amended charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He was alleged to have engaged in criminal breach of trust, forgery, conspiracy to obtain by false pretence and obtaining money by false pretence when he was CBN governor.
Among the allegations was that the former CBN boss forged a document and purported same to have emanated from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (AGF).
He is also accused of using his office as CBN governor to confer unfair and corrupt advantage on two companies; April 1616 Nigeria Ltd and Architekon Nigeria Ltd.
At the resumed proceedings, on Monday, Agboro, an investigator with the Independent, Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) testified.
Led in evidence, by Rotimi Oyedepo, he tendered several documents including company registration documents and awards as well as payments for contracts relating to the two forms.
In his evidence, the investigator claimed that Emefiele conferred unfair and corrupt advantage in the award of contracts to April 1616 and Archtekon.
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He added that documents his team went through showed that while a director of April 1616, Saadatu Yaro, is a public officer at the CBN, Emefiele’s wife Margaret Omoyile and his brother-in-law Mac Congo are directors in Architekon.
However, during cross-examination by Emefiele’s lawyer, Mathew Burkaa, the witness when asked whether the defendant conferred unfair and corrupt advantage on himself, answered that “he conferred on Saadatu Ramalan Yaro, who is a public officer working under him. He also conferred on his wife and brother-in-law.”
The witness admitted that nowhere in their findings did they discover that Emefiele was a director or shareholder or an account signatory in either April 1616 limited or Architekon Nigeria limited.
He also admitted that there was no evidence of any payment made to Emefiele by these companies in the course of performing his duties at the CBN.
Also when asked if, in the course of their investigation, they interviewed people in the CBN to determine whether the two firms executed the jobs they were contracted to do, the witness said “Yes”.
However, when asked if the team in their final report stated this fact, the witness said he could not recall if they did.
Justice Hamza Muazu adjourned the matter until April 25.
