An operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Alvan Gurumnaan, on Tuesday narrated before the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja how former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, allegedly received a total of $17.1 million in cash through a proxy between 2020 and 2023.
Gurumnaan, who gave evidence before Justice Rahman Oshodi, stated that the funds were received over a three-year period in tranches and were handed over to Emefiele’s associate, Henry Omoile, who is the second defendant in the matter.
Emefiele and Omoile are facing a 19-count charge bordering on corrupt demands and gratification totalling $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion, filed by the EFCC.
Led in evidence by prosecuting counsel Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, Gurumnaan testified that the money trail was uncovered through statements given by a dispatch rider, Mr. Monday Osazuwa, who previously testified as the prosecution’s first witness.
Gurumnaan testified that when a letter was sent to Osazuwa, he came to the EFCC’s office and was interviewed.
He stated that Osazuwa told the commission that he knew Emefiele when he was the MD of Zenith Bank in 2014, and that he facilitated his joining of CBN.
Gurumnaan said according to Osazuwa, he ran errands for Emefiele, adding that some of the errands were official and some personal errands.
“The personal errands Osazuwa ran for Emefiele according to him was when he received a call from Emefiele who then sent him a phone number and asked him to call on Mohit who was in London and after he called Mohit, Mohit gave him the contact of an individual.
“Osazuwa met the individual from September 2020 to 2023, and received monies in dollars on behalf of Emefiele a total of $17,100,000, upon receiving the sums Osazuwa went to Emefiele’s house at Ikoyi and handed over the money to the second defendant Henry Omoile as instructed by the first defendant.
“Most of those transactions happened on Fridays for three years,” he said.
The witness also told the court that when he and his team interviewed, they were told that he gave Osazuwa a total of $17,100,000 between 2020 to 2023 for onward transmission to Emefiele.
“We collected the proxy’s phone, did analysis on it and discovered WhatsApp messages and Mr Raja’s boss Mohit also confirmed it,” he said.
Gurumnaan, who said they usually take permission before going through the phones of the people they interviewed, told the court that he took the permission of Raja before going through his phone.
The witness also told the court that the WhatsApp conversation was sent to one of their team members Musa Idi’s email, where they now printed it out with the office HP computer.
He added that they extracted the documents in his presence at the EFCC’s conference hall.
Earlier in his testimony, Gurumnaan, who said he has been an operative of the EFCC since 2008 and works at the Special Investigation Department, added that his duties included arrest, search warrant, report writing, testifying before courts, amongst others.
He told Justice Oshodi that the commission has received several petitions of abuse of office, receiving and demanding funds cases against Emefiele.
According to him, the commission wrote to various institutions, including the CBN, Department of Legal, Human Resources, the Corporate Affairs Commission, and the Financial Market Dealers Quotations, to obtain relevant documents.
He said, “After collating all the documents, we further investigated the officials from these departments. Some of them were delayed and some were released on bail.
“Based on the intelligence we had, we had to invite those that worked directly with the first defendant (Emefiele), Monday Osazuwa was invited, John Adetola was invited, John Ogah was also invited.
“One of name that featured predominantly was on Eric Udoh, we made frantic efforts to bring him, we couldn’t.
“There is a report tracing him to Dominican Republic, Canada, United Kingdom. As an effort to bring him to answer questions we contacted Interpol and have placed him on red. He is now wanted all over the world.”
Following the witness’s testimony, Justice Oshodi adjourned further proceedings to October 7 and 8, 2025, for continuation of trial.
The Punch
