Mr. Victor Onyejiuwa, a prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) , has narrated to a court how he was pressured into parting with $600,000 as bribe to CBN officials before he could be paid for a contract executed.
Emefiele and his co-defendant, Henry Omoile are currently facing trial on a 26-count charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Lagos State Special Offences Court, at Ikeja.
Onyejiuwa is the Managing Director of Resource Computer Limited – an ICT firm that provides hardware and software solutions in security, network, storage, backups, data protection and recovery, virtualization and other ICT solutions to both private enterprises and public institutions.
While being led in evidence by EFCC prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, Onyejiuwa disclosed his company worked for CBN from 2014 to 2019, and was awarded at least five contracts during the period. In 2017, his company secured an “enterprise storage and servers” contract worth about $1.2 billion.
CBN Officials Demand Bribe
After completing the contract, Onyejiuwa recounted, he was approached by a former CBN director asking for “something” on behalf of the CBN management in order to facilitate payment. The director suggested that if he didn’t comply, payment for the contract could be in jeopardy.
Onyejiuwa said he tried to share details of the contract with the bank director and explained to him his obligations to his foreign partners, but all to no avail
Succumbing to the threat, he got and paid $600,000 to the bank director to facilitate payment.
He explained,
After the contract had been executed, I was accosted by the director, who insisted that the management was requesting something from the transaction. He said there was pressure on him. 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 on 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.
Exchange rate at the time was N360/$1. Other jobs his company did were of far lesser value at N24 million and N17 million each.
Jurisdiction To Be Determined
Justice Rahman Oshodi presiding over the court adjourned the case to May 17, 2024, for continuation of the trial.
But the legal tussle for the court’s jurisdiction has not been settled. The Judge granted Emefiele’s counsel, Olakekan Ojo, SAN, his request to file a notice of leave to appeal his earlier decision to defer ruling on the court’s jurisdiction until later. The defence wants the matter of jurisdiction settled before the substantive matter.
Emefiele’s legal team argues that the Ikeja High Court lacks jurisdiction as the case involves foreign exchange which is under the Exclusive List and so should be tried by a federal court.
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