A Chief executive of an ICT firm, Victor Onyejiuwa, in the ongoing trial of a former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday told the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja how he was pressured to pay $600,000 for the award of a contract.
Mr Emefiele and his co-defendant, Henry Omoile, are currently facing trial on a 26-count charge bordering on alleged abuse of office and a $4.5bn and N2.8bn fraud
which they pleaded not guilty to.
Mr Onyejiuwa, who was led in evidence in chief by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s lead prosecution counsel Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), told the court that his company deploys hardware and software-tailored solutions to private and public enterprises.
The witness added that his company provided information and communication technology services to the apex bank between 2014 and 2019, and that his company was awarded at least five contracts within the period.
He said that sometime in 2017, his company was awarded an “enterprise storage and servers” contract by the CBN.
The contractor said after the contract was executed by his company, he was approached by John Ikechukwu Ayoh, a former director at the CBN, that the “management needs something” from the contract, and that if he did not accede, the funds meant for the contract would be delayed. The witness said he later succumbed to the pressure and paid $600,000 to facilitate the payment of the contract sum.
“After the contract had been executed, I was accosted by Mr John, saying the management was requesting something from the transaction,” he said.
“He said there was pressure on him. I told him that our payment was being delayed. He told me that if I didn’t accede to his request, my payment would not be approved.
“After several back and forth, for him to see reasons with me, why I needed to get paid, and my obligations with my partners, I succumbed to his pressure.
“I was able to organise the sum of $400k and $200k to facilitate payment of the contract funds. Within two or three weeks after, payment was made. That is what happened.”
When asked by Mr Oyedepo to mention the value of the contracts executed for the CBN, he said that the highest contract sum was $1.2 bn in 2017 and late 2018 when the naira traded at N360/$ 1.
He also told the court that there were other small payments of N24m and N17m.
The defence could not cross-examine the witness as it was already 4:30 p.m.
Consequently, Justice Oshodi adjourned the case till May 17, 2024, for continuation of trial.
Earlier the second prosecution witness John Ayoh, while concluding his cross-examination, told the court that on November 26, 2014, he had a confrontation with mr Emefiele, who wanted him to approach vendors and ask them for gratification but that he refused.
He said,” I walked out of his office and said he should sack me if he wanted to”.
Mr Ayoh also stated that his relationship with Mr Emefiele was formal, as he never had any informal relationship with them.
Also on Thursday, the EFCC tendered bundles of documents before the court through another witness, a compliance officer with Zenith Bank, Clement Ngolu.
The documents were admitted as evidence following no objections from both lead counsel representing the Defendants, Olalekan Ojo (SAN) and Adeyinka Kotoye (SAN)
Justice Rahman Oshodi admitted the original copies of the Bank account opening package, statement of account of one Limelight Multidimensional Services Ltd which were sent to the EFCC into evidence.
Mr Ngolu, in his evidence in chief said his department responded to requests by regulators and law enforcement agencies in order to monitor their activities under the law.
The witness said that sometimes in 2014, his department got a request from EFCC to furnish them with statements of accounts of the said company and two other accounts, which were acceded to.
“The process of generating the statement was through our computer system which was in good condition as at the time.
“The documents were printed out from the company’s computer which was working well and the documents are in the bank’s custody,” the witness said.
The defence however said they had no question for the witness.
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