A witness presented by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting at Maitama, Abuja, in the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele’s alleged money laundering has told the court that Emefiele awarded multimillion naira contracts to his wife’s company.
The witness, Michael Agboro, told the court that Emefiele awarded contracts worth hundreds of millions of naira to Architekon Nigeria Limited, a company where his wife, Margaret Omoyile, is listed as a director.
Agboro, who is an investigator from the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), said that the findings of his investigations showed that Emefiele had conferred a corrupt and unfair advantage on Architekon Nigeria Limited and April 1616, as other qualified companies did not enjoy the patronage of the CBN.
Saadaru Yaro, a CBN staff member also under EFCC investigation, is listed as a director of April 1616 Investment Limited.
Agboro said that it took a while to uncover the connection between Architekan Ltd and Emefiele’s wife, “who is using a name that if you did not dig, you would not know it is his wife.”
He wondered why Emefiele’s wife still used her maiden name and had not publicly taken her husband’s last name.
However, Matthew Burkaa, who represented Emefiele, disregarded the statement as irrelevant to the matter at hand.
But Agboro said it was discovered that Architekan Ltd got nearly a N100 million contract to renovate the “external landscaping” of the Ikoyi, Lagos, residence of the CBN governor in 2020.
The EFCC’s counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, over N97million was paid for a furniture contract to Architekon Ltd, where Emefiele’s wife, Margaret and her brother-in-law Jonathan Omo-ile were listed as directors.
Architekan Ltd was also said to had gotten a N58million contract to power Emefiele’s Ikoyi residence.
But Burkaa countered his claims and asked if the witness bothered to find out if the projects were even carried out during the investigation, to which Agboro responded in the negative.
Emefiele’s lawyer found it suspicious that the EFCC did not bring to court the findings of the investigation report and that investigators did not bother to find out whether or not the awarded contracts were executed.
In his decision, Justice Hamza Muazu, asked both parties to reconvene on April 25 and 26 for further hearing.
Recall that EFCC in February 2024 declared Emefiele’s wife and others wanted for allegedly conspiring with the former CBN governor to embezzle huge sums of money.
A notice signed by the EFCC’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, reportedly said that their alleged crimes of obtaining money by false pretences and stealing contravened sections 411, 287 and 314 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.