The trial of former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, resumed on Tuesday before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with a prosecution witness testifying that he never received any money directly from the defendant.
The witness, Mr. Richard Agulu, a former staff member of Zenith Bank Plc who now works with the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), appeared as the third prosecution witness (PW-3).
Under cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr. Matthew Burkaa, Agulu told the court that all financial dealings he handled in relation to the case were communicated through Emefiele’s Personal Assistant, Mr. Eric Ocheme.
“I never received a dime directly from the defendant. I received the funds through his personal assistant, Eric Ocheme,” the witness stated.
When asked whether he ever saw Emefiele personally hand money to Ocheme for onward transfer to him, Agulu responded: “My lord, I have never seen that, but he passes instructions through phone calls through Ocheme for me.”
However, upon being confronted with his extra-judicial statement, the witness admitted that he did not specifically mention “phone calls” as the medium through which the alleged instructions were conveyed.
“I cannot see anywhere I said phone, but I said it was by his instructions,” he clarified.
The extra-judicial statement was subsequently admitted in evidence and marked as Exhibit G.
Agulu further testified that some of the transactions he referenced in his earlier testimony were authenticated by the owners of Kelvito Integrated Services, Mr. Chukwuma Okpala, and Ifeadigo Integrated Services, Mr. Peter Adebayo.
According to him, the transactions were effected by the bank based on instructions from the account holders and were executed through banking instruments, including cheques.
He maintained that the instructions he received through Ocheme formed the basis of the banking instruments he worked on to carry out the transactions. He added that the instructions were not issued in the form of cheques, letters, emails, or text messages.
During further questioning, the witness acknowledged that under the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the operational policies of Zenith Bank, bank staff are only permitted to act on formal instructions from account holders — either through official communication, duly signed cheques, or the physical presence of the customer at the bank.
Agulu also stressed that neither Emefiele nor Ocheme was an account holder in the transactions in question. He explained that this was why he included the names of the account owners on deposit slips whenever cash was lodged into their accounts.
The trial continues.
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