The 14th prosecution witness (PW in the ongoing trial of the immediate past governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, Tuesday told the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) how some suspects confessed to fraudulently withdrawing the sum of $6.23million from the apex bank.
The money, he said, was purportedly meant for international election observers for the 2023 general election.
Emefiele is standing trial before Justice Hamza Muazu, sitting at Maitama, Abuja, on an amended 20-count charge, marked FCT/HC/CR/577/2023, bordering on criminal breach of trust, forgery, abuse of office, conspiracy to obtain by false pretence and obtaining money to the tune of $6,230,000, by false pretence while serving as CBN governor.
The charge against the former CBN governor was brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which further accused the defendant of conferring corrupt advantages on two companies, April 1616 Nigeria Ltd and Architekon Nigeria Ltd.
But Emefiele has pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against him by the anti-corruption commission.
At the resumed hearing in the case, the PW13, Eloho Edwin Okpoziakpo, the Commissioner of Police in charge of Special Fraud Unit, Lagos, told the court that he and three other police officers were deployed in assisting Mr Jim Obaze, who was appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the special investigator to investigate the CBN and other government business entities.
He stated that he assisted the special investigator in taking statements, interrogating persons who were complicit one way or the other, and also providing intelligence to aid the special investigator’s work.
Led in his evidence-in-chief by the prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, CP Okpoziakpo, told the court that in the course of investigation, they got an intelligence on $6.23million that was fraudulently taken from the Abuja branch of CBN that had the defendant’s approval.