How Emefiele Acquired Multi Billion Naira Properties by Proxies – EFCC Investigator
An investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Alvan Gurumnaan, told an Ikeja Special Offences Court on Thursday that the embattled Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, acquired multi billion naira properties through proxies while in office.
Emefiele faces 19 counts of alleged gratification, corrupt demands, and abuse of office, involving transactions valued at $ 4.5 billion and N2.8 billion, respectively.
His co-defendant, Henry Omoile, stands trial on three counts of alleged unlawful acceptance of gifts.
Gurumnaan, continuing his evidence-in-chief led by the Federal Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mr Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), revealed that Emefiele’s statement was recorded as part of intelligence received by the special operations team he led.
He said the investigation revealed that Emefiele used his office as governor of the Central Bank to build a system that prevented ordinary Nigerians and business people in dire need of forex exchange from accessing such funds to carry on their businesses.
According to him, because of the difficulty in accessing the funds, businessmen had to agree to special arrangements made by Emefiele before they could access them.
The witness said: ” One of those examples was how a company had to pay millions of dollars to the first defendant through his staff, Monday Osazuwa.
“Osazuwa admitted to us in the course of investigation that he received about 17 million US dollars from the company and gave it to the second defendant.
“The second defendant was the one who later took the money to the first defendant.
“Furthermore, in the course of investigation, we found out the first defendant used his office to receive such amount and another example is source computer where the managing director of the company was compelled to bring out money to the first defendant before his contact fees were paid.”
The witness further highlighted various properties which were owned by the first defendant through proxies.
Gurumnaan told the court that Emefiele allegedly used associates to procure numerous properties found beyond his legitimate income as the governor of the Central Bank.
According to him, several courts had given judgments in favour of EFCC, forfeiting assets and properties estimated about N100 billions, belonging to Emefiele.
Gurumnaan said:” He accepted and came to court that the properties belonged to him.
“The first defendant used associates who also admitted to receiving money on his behalf; one of them is a lawyer called Ifeanyin Omeke, whose office our investigation led to, and a sum of over 2 million US dollars in cash was recovered.
“This same Omeke serves as a secretary to several companies and he admitted to being a front for the first defendant. “We recovered a set of twin duplexes in Lekki Phase 1 and also two mansions in Queens Drive Ikoyi, Lagos.
Emefiele’s Lead Counsel, Mr Ojo Olalekan (SAN) and Omoile’s Lead Counsel, Mr Kazeem Gbadamosi, objected and argued that the testimony of the witness was not relevant to the charge before the court.
Justice Rahman Oshodi, in his short ruling, overuled the obejction and held that the defendants would be at the liberty to cross examine the witness.
The witness, in his further testimony, told the court that during the investigation and the recording of the first defendant’s statement, he was allowed to respond to some of the findings but he did not.
Gurumnaan said: “Although he did not address the allegation, our investigation found that the first defendant purchased many other properties through proxies, and I have mentioned some of them.
“We also discovered that the first defendant was building a factory in his hometown in Agbor, Delta State, which has also been forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“There is also a property, my Lord, on Adekunle Lawal Street in Ikoyi, Lagos, which the first defendant purchased. It had belonged to the Nigerian Printing and Minting Company, where he served as chairman of the board, and he sold the property to himself.
“The property, a block of eight flats in Ikoyi, has also been forfeited to the federal government and during our investigation, another warehouse belonging to the first defendant was recovered in Ogun State, on the outskirts of Lagos,” he told thecourt.
The witness said the warehouse contained several containers worth estimated hundreds of billions of naira and an eleven-story building under construction, comprising about 94 luxury flats also belonging to Emefiele.
Gurumnaan also told the court that an estate containing about 750 houses belonging to the first defendant was also recovered in the Lokogoma District of Abuja.
Oshodi adjourned the case until Nov. 13 for continuation of trial. Foreign Investors Pivot into US Dollar Bonds, Yields Ease
