The Assistant Manager of Zenith Bank Plc, Ms Ifeoma Ogbonna, has told a Lagos Special Offences Court that the embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, through the bank moved multimillion naira to his wife, Mrs Margaret Emefiele.
She said the firms that CBN vendors are 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 (Ogbonna) narrated to Justice Rahman Oshodi that she received instructions from Emiefele’s wife to transfer funds to firms’ 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, she said she joined Zenith Bank in 2006 as a Business Relationship Manager, also known as Marketer. She said she joined the marketing team in 2017 and managed customer portfolio.
“We also collaborate with other departments and are responsible to mobilise deposit funds. Before, I worked as a customer service team lead at Opebi Branch. But currently, I am an Assistant Manager of Zenith Bank Plc.”
Ogbonna continued that she has no personal relationship with the former CBN governor, Emefiele.
She noted that whenever Madam Emefiele sends them instructions or sends instructions through the other two people who worked with them, she usually confirm from her via WhatsApp chats.
She, however, said that she managed the various companies’ accounts through which the multimillion naira was sent.
She said, “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 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 manages the facilities of CBN located in the Alakija area of Lagos, noting that all transactions on power and fixing things that are not working were always done by the vendors.
She said: “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 the investigation started, I was requested to print all the documents to the law enforcement, which I did. I printed 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 into evidence the certificate of identification and bundle of printed documents, following no objections from the defense.
The witness thereafter spoke into the documents and briefly explained the inflow and outflow of funds, purportedly sent from CBN through Zenith Bank to Emefiele’s wife.
Ogbonna further told the court that between March 9 and 11, 2015, the account received cash flow from CBN to the tune of N1,792,593 and N18,869,400.
She said, “On February 22, 2021, there was a cash flow of N42,988,758.75 from CBN. On July 21, 2022, there was a cash flow of N37,279,964.70. On October 21, 2022, there was a credit flow of N44,641,077.60. On May 10, 2023, there was a cash flow of N93,100,000 from CBN, among others.”
Emefiele’s Counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo (SAN), and the second defense 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 she used to have conversations with Mrs. Emefiele on an A4 paper and it was admitted into 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 cannot get the number through her phone.
Earlier in the proceeding, Justice Oshodi had in a ruling granted the application filed by the second defendant’s counsel, Kazeem Gbadamosi (SAN), to recall the first prosecution witness, Monday Osazuwa.
Justice Oshodi subsequently adjourned the case to July 10, 2024, for continuation of trial.
THEGUARDIAN
