During the trial of ex-Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele, a prosecution witness revealed that he was compelled to offer a $600,000 bribe in order to receive payment for a contract he executed for the apex bank.
Victor Onyejiuwa, the Managing Director of Resource Computer Limited, disclosed this information at the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja yesterday, while testifying under the guidance of prosecuting counsel Rotimi Oyedepo.
Onyejiuwa mentioned that his company specializes in providing custom security, network, storage, and backup solutions through hardware and software deployments.
Justice Rahman Oshodi is overseeing the trial of Emefiele and his co-defendant, Henry Omoile, who are facing a 26-count charge related to alleged $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion fraud.
While maintaining their innocence, the former CBN governor and Omoile pleaded not guilty to the charges.
According to Onyejiuwa, his company rendered information and communication technology support to CBN from 2014 to 2019 and was awarded a contract for “enterprise storage and servers” in 2017 by the bank.
Despite expressing the delay in payment, Onyejiuwa stated he was pressured by an official who implied that the payment approval was contingent on fulfilling a certain request.
Ultimately succumbing to the pressure after explaining the urgency of receiving payment for his obligations, Onyejiuwa managed to raise $400,000 and $200,000 to expedite the settlement of the contract funds.
He further disclosed that the highest contract amount during the period 2017-2018 was $1.2 billion, while also mentioning smaller payments of N24 million and N17 million.
Following the testimony, Justice Oshodi adjourned the trial to May 17 for further proceedings.