“How Emefiele’s Men Pressured Me To Pay $600,000 Bribe for CBN Contract”: Witness Opens Up

• The former CBN governor’s case with the EFCC has been compounded following a witness revelation
• Godwin Emefiele might likely spend more time in prison as a witness narrated before the court in Lagos that he was pressured to pay $600k for the award of a contract
• The witness, a retired Director in the IT Department of CBN, Mr John Ayoh, made the admittance under cross-examination by Emefiele’s lawyer, Mr Olalekan Ojo, SAN

TheTalk.NG journalist Esther Odili has over two years of experience covering political parties and movements.

A prosecution witness in the trial of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele has explained to the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja how he was forced to part with $600,000 (N216 million at the time) before being paid for a contract he handled for the apex bank.

EFCC presents more evidence against Emefiele in court

As reported by The Nation, the Managing Director of Resource Computer Limited, Victor Onyejiuwa, was led in evidence by prosecuting counsel Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN).

Meanwhile, Emefiele and his co-defendant, Henry Omoile, are facing trial on a 26-count charge before Justice Rahman Oshodi. The former CBN governor and Omoile pleaded not guilty to charges of $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion fraud.

But on Thursday, May 9, Onyejiuwa told the court that his company provided information and communication technologies assistance to CBN between 2014 and 2019.

Speaking on how his company was awarded at least five contracts, he added that added that sometime in 2017, Resource Computer was awarded an “enterprise storage and servers” contract by the CBN.

Explaining his ordeal in the hands of Emefiele’s men, the witness said after the contract was executed, he was approached by a senior CBN official who told him that if he did not pay certain sums, he would not be paid.

“After several back and forths, for him to see reasons with me as to 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 $400,000 and $200,000 to facilitate payment of the contract funds.

“Within two or three weeks after, payment was made. That is what happened,” the witness said.

The defence counsel could not cross-examine the witness as it was already late. Justice Oshodi adjourned till May 17 for the continuation of the trial, ThisDay reported.

How Emefiele spent N18.9bn to print N684.5m

Meanwhile, TheTalk.NG earlier reported that the EFCC filed a fresh suit against Emefiele at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

In the new suit, the anti-graft agency alleged that the embattled ex-CBN governor printed N684,590,000 at the rate of N18.96 billion.

Emefiele was alleged to have broken the law with the intent of hurting the Nigerian public during the implementation of the new naira note policy.

Source: TheTalk.NG

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