October 22, (THEWILL) — On Wednesday, Justice Hamza Muazu, of an Abuja High Court, adjourned until November 27 for ruling on the eligibility of a witness of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (OAGF) to testify in the trial of the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Emefiele is being prosecuted before the court by the OAGF in the case marked CR/577/2023. He was dragged to court on an amended 20-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust, conferring corrupt advantage, forgery, conspiracy to obtain by false pretence and obtaining money by false pretence while he was CBN governor.
The former CBN governor was alleged to have, among others, used his position as CBN governor to have awarded six different contracts for the supply of different vehicles to April 1616, in which one Sa’adatu Ramalan Yaro, a member of staff of CBN, is a director and shareholder, between 2018 and 2022, to the tune of N1.2 billion, among other allegations.
He, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him.
A report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) stated that at the resumed hearing of the case on Wednesday, Emefiele, through his counsel, Matthew Burkaa SAN, objected to the prosecution calling its 11th witness (PW11), Alvan Grumman, to testify in the matter. He argued that the name of the witness was contained in the additional proof of evidence dated October 15, 2024, filed by the prosecution, which the court, in its ruling of March 20, struck out.
Contending that the prosecution had sought leave of court to appeal its decision to strike out the additional proof of witness, the former apex bank chief noted that through a motion marked M/4626/25, the prosecution had taken a vertical proceeding, and as such, the witness could not testify in the case.
According to him, it was an abuse of court proceedings for the prosecution to take both a vertical and a horizontal approach by filing an appeal against the court’s March 20 ruling.
Responding, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo SAN, told the court that the defendant’s motion, which the court ruled on on March 20, did not mention Grumman but was specifically against Tommy Odama and Ifeanyi Omeke.
Holding that the witness had the material fact of the case being the investigator who investigated the matter, he urged the court to refuse the defence’s objection to Grumman giving evidence in the case.
After listening to parties’ arguments on allowing the witness to testify or not, Justice Muazu adjourned until Nov. 27 to rule on the objection and continuation of the hearing.
Earlier, Oyedepo had told the court that the prosecution filed two separate applications for the subpoena of two witnesses to appear before the court to testify.
The witnesses, Tommy Odama and Ifeanyi Omeke, according to him, both had in custody material facts to aid the court in a just determination of the case. He added and also assists the prosecution in prosecuting its case.
Oyedepo said that the court was yet to respond to the application.
Responding, the counsel for Emefiele urged the court to refuse the applications, submitting that all parties were bound by the decision of the court in its ruling of March 20. He added that having proceeded on appeal, the prosecution could no longer come back to the court to seek the same prayers before the appellate court.
He further told the court that the said subpoenas were filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and not by the OAGF, which filed the charges against his client before the court.
The court subsequently reserved ruling on the applications for subpoena.
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