A prosecution witness, David Jaiyeoba, admitted that he did not personally interrogate the former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, during investigations..
Emefiele, is charged with criminal breach of trust, forgery, abuse of office, conspiracy to obtain by false pretense and obtaining money by false pretense while serving as CBN governor.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleged that Emefiele obtained by false pretence the sum of $6,230,000 purportedly meant for international election observers for the 2023 general election.
It accused the former CBN governor of conferring corrupt advantages on two companies—April 1616 Nigeria Ltd and Architekon Nigeria Ltd.
He however, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him.
Jaiyeoba the 12th prosecution witness (PW12) was cross examined by Matthew Burkaa SAN, counsel to Emefiele.
He told the court that the EFCC findings were based on documents and statements of suspects who were arrested during the course of the investigation, the witness said.
He added that the defendant was neither a signatory, director, nor shareholder of Archiketon Nigeria Limited.
He said that he never visited the CBN Governor’s residence, the “ Archiketon “ renovation site alleged in this case, nor any other project locations.
He said that the EFCC findings on the renovation, was based on statements provided by the company’s director, he said.
Jaiyeoba also noted that he was aware of the committee in the CBN that vets and handles the binding process of contracts, but could not recall the name.
He said that he did not interview the officers involved. “My team did the interviews .
“The Abuja team interacted with these officials due to proximity and distance.”
When asked if Emeifele was a member of the Major Contract Tender Committee that handled the procurement process, he replied: “I cannot remember.”
Burkaa then challenged the witness’s understanding of CBN’s procurement process, but the witness maintained that he understood the process.
His response prompted Burkaa to ask again who in CBN was responsible for ensuring whether a company is qualified for a contract, the witness replied, “I am not a staff, so I would not know.”
Burkaa then asked the witness about the properties he had mentioned in the last proceedings.
Burkaa asked if he was aware that the Court of Appeal had overturned the forfeiture order for the properties and presented him with the judgment.
The witness said he was seeing it for the first time but affirmed that while the defendant contested the forfeiture order, he never made a claim to $2 million (part of the items listed for forfeiture) as his property.
In June 2025, the Court of Appeal in Lagos overturned the forfeiture order and directed a fresh hearing by the lower court.
Jaiyeoba then acknowledged that the EFCC was bound by the Court of Appeal’s decision.
Burkaa then challenged him on why he tendered the code of conduct forms of the defendant.
The witness noted that he was not aware of the judgment.
During the last proceeding, the witness said that the investigations followed a report sent to the EFCC by the Inter-Agency Task Force, headed by the State Security Service (SSS).
On Burkaa requested that the report be brought to court. EFCC lawyer, A.O. Mohammed, did not object to the request.
Emefiele’s statement was taken 73 days after the case was filed
Earlier in March, Rotimi Oyedepo, a Senior SAN and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), tendered Mr. Emefiele’s extrajudicial statement through the witness.
Burkaa highlighted that the statements were written from 26 October to 2 November 2023, but EFCC filed their charges against Mr. Emefiele on 14 August 2023.
He then asked the witness “So you took the statements 73 days after filing the charges, you were still investigating the charges?”
The witness replied, “I am not aware of these dates.”
Similarly, Burkaa asked if the defendant was confronted with Nweke’s statement to seek his reaction, the witness stated that they did not.
Justice Hamza Muazu, then adjourned until Tuesday for continuation of trial (NAN)
