The trial of the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, before Justice H.Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, continued on Thursday, with the 14th Prosecution Witness, PW14, Okpoziakpo Eloho, informing the court that the $6,230,000 released by the apex bank on the instruction of the defendant for the purpose of foreign election observer mission with no further details attached, was “pure theft.”
Led in evidence by prosecution counsel and Director, Public Prosecution, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, the witness, a Commissioner of Police in the Fraud Unit of the Force Headquarters, Abuja, stated that “The entire money was released. We saw the approval of the governor”
He told the court that the purpose of the release was simply to steal. “It was pure theft. It was stolen, otherwise obtained under false pretence,” he said.
He identified Exhibit PD5, which he told the court is a presidential directive on Foreign Election Observer Mission, adding that the finding of his investigative team was that the purpose was entirely to carry out fraud and not for the purpose stated in the memo. “Our finding with regards to PD5 is that it is all fraud,” he said.
On the bright side, he disclosed that the investigation team was able to make recoveries of about $800,000 from the alleged stolen fund. “I can’t remember the figure but it was about Eight Hundred Thousand United States Dollars,” he said.
During his cross-examination by defence counsel, Mathew Burka, SAN, the witness affirmed that it was Emefiele, who as the governor, has dominion over CBN funds. He identified Exhibits PD1 to PD7 and disclosed that a special investigator interviewed Boss Mustapha, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, adding that while the letter in paragraph one of Exhibit PD3 purportedly emanated from Mustapha, the former SGF, he stated, said that the signature on Exhibit PD6 did not belong to him.
He further disclosed that the person who collected the $6,230,000 was one Jibril Abubakar, adding that Exhibit PD4 is a copy of identification card, belonging to Jibril Abubakar, but that “the staff ID card number does not belong to him. He is not a staff of the SGF, that is what the investigation revealed.”
When asked by the defence counsel if due process was followed in the release of the funds or not, the witness replied in the negative. “This document is from the governor to the Director Banking Services, protocol was not followed. I presume that the procedure would have been for the document to follow through the deputy governor,” he said.
Justice Muazu adjourned the matter till July 3, 2026, for continuation of trial.
(Ripples)
