The Special Offences Division of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja has admitted more documents tendered as exhibits by the prosecution in the trial of the former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Justice Rahman Oshodi overruled the objections of the defence counsels in the case and admitted the documents in evidence. The court also ordered a trial-within-trial to verify whether the statement the second defendant, Henry Omoile wrote in the custody of the EFCC, was made voluntarily.
Omoile is standing trial alongside Emefiele on a 19-count charge of abuse of office, receiving gratification, accepting gifts through agents, corruption, and fraudulent property transactions involving $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion
At the proceedings on Thursday, Justice Oshodi first admitted in evidence, a bundle of documents extracted from the mobile phone of John Adetola, the former Executive Assistant of the first defendant, Godwin Emefiele, during the EFCC’s investigation.
After this, lead Prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), continued with the testimony of the eighth prosecution witness, Alvan Gurumnaan, an operative with the anti-graft agency, who provided more insights into the evidence uncovered during the investigation.
The witness said the team uncovered how Mr Emefiele allegedly received monies totalling 600,000 dollars personally and through proxies. He added that a particular CBN contractor, Victor Onyedua, said under Interrogation that he allegedly paid kickbacks to “management of the CBN” before receiving payments for the execution of some contracts.
The prosecution tendered another bundle of documents to prove awards of contracts by the CBN to Onyedua, which he had presented to the EFCC team.
Lead counsel for both defendants, Senior Advocates Olalekan Ojo and Rasheed Gbadamosi, urged the court to reject the documents. They argued that being public documents belonging to the CBN, only their certified true copies are admissible.
In his response, Oyedepo said the documents form part of correspondence from Onyedua to the agency, and so are original copies and public documents, which don’t need any further certification to be rendered admissible.
The court admitted the documents, ruling that where a document is validly admissible, its attachment goes with it. John Adetola’s phone was also admitted as an exhibit, with the court granting leave to the defence to inspect it in due course.
But, the counsel to the second defendant rejected a bid by the prosecution to tender some statements of the second defendant made during the investigation, alleging it was written without his lawyer present.
After legal arguments, Justice Oshodi ordered a trial-within-trial to verify how the statements were made and adjourned to December 2 and 3. The court also ordered parties to return on November 21, 2025, for a report on modalities for the defence to conduct a forensic inspection of a phone and WhatsApp conversations earlier presented by the EFCC.
At the resumption of proceedings, Prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), continued with the testimony of Alvan Gurumnaan, an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who provided fresh insights into the evidence uncovered during the Commission’s investigations.
Gurumnaan, continued his evidence by reading the WhatsApp conversation between Mr Henry telling John Adetola in exhibit G, that he should give $400,000 to ‘oga’. “Talk to him ‘oga’ on WhatsApp, if possible.”
“During our investigation, we asked the clarification from him, he explained that there is a conversation between him and Henry on the phone regarding how to meet Ayo to collect $400,000”.
“John Adetola confirmed that he went to Lekki in Lagos, where he met Ayo personal assistant to the CBN Governor, to deliver the money. We further ask him what’s it the messages are, he confirms it $400,000 and proceeds to the CBN office in Lagos, where he handed it over to Emefiele in the CBN office”.
“We made a call to John Ayo, who is working at that time in CBN to report to our office in Lagos, where he was interviewed. During the interview, he confirmed that Mr Adetola came to his house and gave him the money to give to 1st defendant. That was not only transactions.”
“There is another $200,000 he received from the same person, and this time around, he handed it over by himself to Emefiele in his office in Lagos”.
“We invited Mr Victor Oyedua, the CBN contractor, who reported to our office and confirmed during the interview that he actually gave Mr Ayo the sum of $400, 000 and $200, 000 dollars respectively to deliver to the first defendant.”
“He confirmed he was a CBN contractor and two of his works were hanging at that time with CBN, and he has not been paid”.
“He asked why he has not paid, he was told he needed to settle some management to facilitate his money and that’s was why he gave that money, his statements was also recorded”. Prosecution tender another some documents from CBN as exhibits before the court.
Prosecution said the documents we want to tender is the original letter from a company to EFCC dated 24 February 2024. The document is evidence of what EFCC received, as has been produced and tendered. The public document that EFCC received during the investigation is the primary evidence.
However, the defence counsels, led by Olalekan Ojo SAN and Kazeem Gbadamosi SAN, objected to their admissibility, citing concerns over authenticity and proper certification. They urged the court to reject all the photocopy documents as exhibits. Justice Oshodi overruled their objections and admitted the bundle of documents as exhibits H.
Also, John Adetola’s phone, MI10T tendered as an exhibit before the Court; the phone was still on and it was on flight mode, and admitted as exhibits I. The conversation between John Adetola and Henry, from exhibit I, which is a WhatsApp conversation, was analysed.
From the phone, EFCC investigators retrieved further WhatsApp conversations between Adetola and Henry, which were analysed and presented in court. Also, prosecution counsel, Oyedepo, tendered some statements of the defendant made during the investigation, urging the court to admit them as evidence.
Defence counsel made an objection to it that they made the statement under duress.
Justice Oshodi made an order of trial within trial in respect of this statement, and ruled that parties should come on November 21, 2025, for a report of the parties on the agreement on forensic inspection. Adjourned the matter to December 2 and 3, 2025, for mini mini-trial.
- Source: Channels Television
