A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, has asked the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory to quash the $6.23 million procurement fraud charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
He argued on Monday that his continued trial over the alleged economic crime was in bad faith, claiming that none of the witnesses called by the EFCC or the evidence presented linked him to the charges.
His call for the dismissal of the charges followed a no case submission argued on his behalf by his lead counsel, Mathew Burkaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.
At Tuesday's proceedings, Burkaa, while laying the foundation for the no case submission, argued that the EFCC's case in counts 1 to 14 was that Emefiele had conferred an unfair advantage on his close associates, including his wife and in-law.
According to him, none of the witnesses presented by the anti-graft agency established that Emefiele benefited from the alleged transactions or manipulated the Tenders Board Committee to award contracts to two companies at the centre of the allegations.
Burkaa told the court that the only thing the prosecution was able to establish was that Emefiele, as head of the CBN, issued approvals.
"There was nothing to show that he manipulated the committee. There was nothing to show that he told the Tenders Board of the CBN what to do.
"The EFCC evidence showed that the two companies named April 1616 and Archetekon executed the car supply contracts awarded to them by the CBN. So, the corruption would have been that they collected money and did not do the work.
"The unfairness would have been that Emefiele manipulated the process of the contract award, lobbied to get them to have the contract."
Arguing further, Burkaa said the prosecution witnesses made it clear that the companies were awarded the contracts because "they bid less than other companies."
He also noted that the prosecution alleged that the companies were guided but could not establish who guided them, how they were guided or which documents showed that they received such guidance.
He noted that counts 15 to 20 were added to the charges while the case was already ongoing, adding that the counts focused on the $6.23 million withdrawn from the CBN and the alleged forgery of signatures and documents.
Burkaa said Boss Mustapha, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), had testified that his signature and that of former President Muhammadu Buhari were forged. Emefiele also reportedly said during EFCC interrogation that his signature had been forged.
Given the allegation that three signatures were forged, Burkaa questioned why Mustapha and the late Buhari were not investigated.
He said a witness had stated that they ought to have been investigated and that the EFCC witnesses were surprised that this had not been done.
Opposing the no case submission, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, said he would set the record straight to demonstrate why the submission should be rejected.
He argued that Emefiele was a public officer who used his position to confer an unfair advantage on Archetekon, whose directors allegedly included his wife and brother-in-law.
Oyedepo said the contracts in counts 1 to 14 did not go through the Tenders Board Committee (TBC), despite a requirement that contracts exceeding the N10 million threshold be scrutinised by the board.
"The committee was circumvented for reviewing the contract," Oyedepo argued, adding that this was the testimony of PW3.
Similarly, he alleged that April 1616 was guided to quote the in-house price, thereby depriving other Nigerian contractors of a fair chance.
"That is not an honest mistake; that is an unfair advantage in the process."
He said the public should be concerned about the $6.23 million withdrawn from the CBN under Emefiele's leadership, describing it as a breach of trust.
Oyedepo said Burkaa's argument was that Emefiele was unaware of the withdrawal between February 8, 2023, and sometime in June 2023, when he was removed from office, and that he had been singled out for persecution.
"The evidence before the court does not support that position. There are two critical documents used as the basis for the release of the money, which Mr Mustapha testified were forged.
"PW15 said there is a system that triggers a complaint to Emefiele while he was governor because there must be naira cover for the withdrawal, and Mr Emefiele had to respond to this.
"He did nothing until he left office."
Oyedepo further said that when Emefiele was arrested, his personal assistant was found with dollars and allegedly wrote that, on the defendant's instructions, the money was to be delivered to a man identified as Mr Omeghe. Oyedepo said Omeghe confessed to disbursing the money on Emefiele's instructions.
In response to the allegation that April 1616 had been guided, Burkaa urged the court to review the record of proceedings, arguing that PW10, who was testifying on the issue, had not made such a statement and had collapsed while being cross-examined.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge reserved his ruling on the no case submission for a date to be communicated to the parties.
Emefiele asks court to dismiss $6.23m procurement fraud charges