Jonathan Nwokpor
Mrs. Ifeoma Ogbonnaya, an Assistant Manager at Zenith Bank Plc, describes how Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), transferred money to his wife, Mrs. Margaret Emefiele.
On Tuesday, Ogbonnaya described before the Ikeja Special Offences Court how Emefiele transferred millions of naira to his wife through the bank.
Emefiele is on trial for suspected office abuse and fraud totaling N2.8 billion and $4.5 billion during his tenure in government.
The fifth prosecution witness, Ogbonnaya, was led in testimony by Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, the attorney for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
She described to the court how Emefiele utilised Zenith Bank to send his wife millions of naira in installments via a number of companies.
According to Ogbonnaya, Amswing Resources and Solution, Limelight Dimensional Service Ltd., Omec Support Service Ltd., and Mango Farm were the businesses that benefited from the cash flow.
“Limelight manages the facilities of CBN, located at Alakija and all transactions pertaining to power and fixing things that are not working was always done by the vendors,” she said.
The witness began working for the bank in 2006 and is also a Business Relationship Manager.
Ogbonnaya claimed that although she never had direct contact with the former governor of the CBN, she did receive instructions from his wife to use a Zenith Bank account to move funds from the CBN into their private businesses.
She claimed that in addition to Mrs. Emefiele, two other individuals who worked for the Emefieles but are currently tardy, Mr. John Ogah and Mr. Opeyemi Oludimu, also gave her orders.
On the other hand, the witness stated that she managed the different business accounts via which the millions of naira were sent.
“Mrs Margaret Emefiele, the ex-CBN governor’s wife, is the direct beneficiary of the accounts.
“The companies sent transfer instructions to my email and Margaret is the beneficial owner of the accounts.
“All transactions made in the accounts were confirmed by Mrs Emefiele before they were processed.
“She sends transfer instructions directly to my official email address with Zenith Bank or sends two other persons to act on her behalf but I still receive approval from her,” she said.
The witness further reported to the court that the accounts got N1.8 million and N18.9 million in cash flow from the apex bank between March 9 and 11, 2015.
“On Feb. 22, 2021, there was a cash flow of N43 million from CBN; on July 21, 2022, there was a cash flow of N37.3 million; on Oct. 21, 2022, there was a credit flow of N44.6 million, on May 10, 2023, there was a cash flow of N93.1 million from CBN, among others,” she said.
The witness went on to say that she would typically discuss transactions that needed to be completed on the accounts before processing them with Emefiele’s wife via phone calls, WhatsApp messages, and emails.
She claimed that her office desktop computer was used to print the bundles of documents pertaining to the several transactions.
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