A prosecution witness, David Jaiyeoba, admitted that he did not personally interrogate the former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, during investigations. Emefiele, is charged with criminal breach of trust, forgery, abuse of office, conspiracy to obtain by false pretence and obtaining money by false pretence while serving as CBN governor.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleged that Emefiele obtained by false pretence the sum of $6,230,000 purportedly meant for international election observers for the 2023 general election. It accused the former CBN governor of conferring corrupt advantages on two companies—April 1616 Nigeria Ltd and Architekon Nigeria Ltd.

He, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him. Jaiyeoba the 12th prosecution witness (PW12) was cross examined by Matthew Burkaa SAN, counsel to Emefiele. He told the court that the EFCC findings were based on documents and statements of suspects who were arrested during the course of the investigation, the witness said.

He added that the defendant was neither a signatory, director, nor shareholder of Archiketon Nigeria Limited. He said he never visited the CBN Governor’s residence, the “ Archiketon “ renovation site alleged in this case, nor any other project locations.

He said the EFCC findings on the renovation, was based on statements provided by the company’s director, he said. Jaiyeoba also noted that he was aware of the committee in the CBN that vets and handles the binding process of contracts, but could not recall the name. He said he did not interview the officers involved. “My team did the interviews.”