A official of Zenith Bank plc, Ms. Ifeoma Ogbinna who is an Assistant Manager and fifth prosecution witness has narrated to Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Special Offences Court, Ikeja how the wife of the embattled former Governor of Central Bank (CBN), Godwin Emefiele assisted in laundering huge amounts of money for her husband.
A fifth prosecution witness disclosed this at the continuation of trial on Tuesday.
Emefiele is standing trial over abuse of office, alleged $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion fraud while in office alongside Henry Omoile.
She was led in evidence by the the prosecution counsel to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN.
The witness told the court how he used Zenith Bank Plc to transfer millions of naira in tranches to his wife through various companies.
Although she claimed she never managed any account with him directly, she said that she managed the various companies’ accounts through which the multimillion naira was sent to.
She told the court that the accounts are for Mrs. Margaret Emefiele, the ex-CBN governor’s wife.
She added that the companies sent transfer instructions to her email and Margaret is the beneficial owner of the accounts saying all transactions made in the accounts were confirmed by Mrs. Emefiele before they were processed.
She also receives instructions from two other people, Mr. John Ogah and one Mr. Opeyemi Oludimu, who works for the Emefieles but who is late.
The witness further said that she usually communicates with Emefiele’s wife through email, phone calls and WhatsApp on transactions that were to be carried out on the accounts before processing it.
She said the bundles of documents which entailed the various transactions were printed from her desktop computer.
The prosecution sought to tender the bundles of documents which entailed the various transactions that took place between the witness and Emefiele’s wife.
Emefiele’s Counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo (SAN) and the second defence counsel, Mr. Kazeem Gbadamosi (SAN) did not object to the admissibility of the documents.
The court, thereafter admitted into evidence, the certificate of identification, bundle of printed documents, following no objections from the defence.
Ifeoma had earlier told the court that the inflows were for jobs the companies did for the CBN.
Earlier, Justice Oshodi granted request by counsel to the first Defendant, Olalekan Ojo SAN to recall one of the Prosecutor’s Witness, PW1 who had testified he ran errands for Emefiele, sending money to clients for cross examination.
Justice Oshodi adjourned the case until July 10 for continuation of trial.
