Victor Onyejiuwa, the Managing Director of The Source Computers Limited, testified against the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, at the Lagos High Court.
Emefiele and his co-defendant, Henry Omoile, are facing a 26-count charge of abuse of office. Both pleaded not guilty to all charges.
During the court hearing on Thursday, May 9, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) presented Onyejiuwa as the fourth witness in the case. Onyejiuwa stated that his company provided information and communication technologies assistance to the CBN between 2014 and 2019, and that the CBN awarded at least five contracts to his company during that period. He further claimed that in 2017, the CBN awarded an "enterprise storage and servers" contract to his firm.
Onyejiuwa alleged that after the contract was executed, he was approached by John Ikechukwu Ayoh, a former director at the apex bank, who claimed that the "management needs something" from the contract. Ayoh allegedly stated that if Onyejiuwa did not comply, the funds meant for the contract would not be approved by the management.
Under pressure, Onyejiuwa claimed he organized $400k and $200k to facilitate payment of the contract funds. He expressed his desire for the court to recover the money.
The EFCC counsel asked Onyejiuwa to mention the amount allocated for the contracts, to which he stated that the highest contract sum was $1.2 billion in late 2017 when the naira traded at N360/$ in the forex market. He also mentioned being awarded contracts for $2.1 million, N340,000, and N17 million by the CBN.
Following Onyejiuwa's testimony, Emefiele's counsel requested an adjournment to cross-examine the witness in the next court sitting. The trial judge, Rahman Oshodi, adjourned the case to May 17 for the cross-examination of the witness.
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