Victor Onyejiuwa, the managing director of The Source Computers Limited, has testified against Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in the ongoing case of abuse of office at the Lagos high court.

Emefiele and his co-defendant, Henry Omoile, are currently facing trial on a 26-count charge.

The former CBN governor and Omoile pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

At the court hearing on Thursday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) presented Onyejiuwa as the fourth witness in the case against Emefiele.

Onyejiuwa told the court that his company — The Source Computers Limited — provided information and communication technologies assistance to the apex bank between 2014 and 2019.

The witness said the CBN awarded at least five contracts to his company during the period.

He added that in 2017, the apex bank awarded an “enterprise storage and servers” contract to his firm.

Onyejiuwa said after the contract was executed, he was approached by John Ikechukwu Ayoh, a former director at the apex bank, that the “management needs something” from the contract.

Onyejiuwa said Ayoh told him that if he did not accede, the funds meant for the contract would not be approved by the management.

“After the contract had been executed, I was accosted by Mr John, saying the management was requesting something from the transaction,” he told the court.

“He said there was pressure on him. I told him that our payment was being delayed. He told me that if I don’t accede to his request, my payment will not be approved.

“After several back and forth for him to see reasons with me on why I needed to get paid and my obligations with my partners, I succumbed to his pressure.

“I was able to organise the sum of $400k and $200k to facilitate payment of the contract funds. Within two or three weeks after, payment was made. That is what happened.

“I was pressured to give the money. I will appreciate it if the money is recovered by the court.”

Asked by the EFCC counsel to mention the amount allocated for the contracts, he said that the highest contract sum was $1.2 billion in late 2017 when naira traded at N360/$ at the forex market.

The witness added that he was awarded contracts for $2.1 million, N340,000, and N17 million by the CBN.

After Onyejiuwa’s testimony, Olalekan Ojo, Emefiele’s counsel, asked for an adjournment to cross-examine the witness in the next court sitting.

Rahman Oshodi, the trial judge, adjourned the case to May 17 for the cross-examination of the witness.

A REWIND

On April 29, Ayoh, former CBN director, appeared before the court to testify against Emefiele.

Ayoh told the court that he worked at the apex bank from June 2014 to April 2019, noting that he did not work directly under Emefiele.

Ayoh added that he used to report to Adebayo Adelabu, a former deputy governor of CBN, who is now the minister of power.

The witness said he was the head of procurement and support services (PSS) of the apex bank, which was vested with powers to receive bids and select successful bidders.

The former CBN director said he collected money from contractors as gratification of awarding contracts to them based on the instruction from Emefiele.

Ayoh said he collected $400,000 and $200,000 in cash from contractors on two different occasions and handed them over to Emefiele’s personal assistant — John Adetona.

A Nigerian woman, identified as Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi, has made history as the first black woman to bag a PhD degree in Robotics at the University of Michigan, United States.

Dosunmu-Ogunbi recently spoke at the university’s commencement ceremony.

During her address, she said she started her program without having clear idea of what she wanted to achieve.

She said she would use her knowledge in the engineering field to make a “positive impact on the world”.

“A Michigan Engineer is one who does not just provide scientific and technological leadership,” she said.

“But is also one who is intellectually curious, socially conscious, creates collaborative solutions to societal problems, and promotes an inclusive and innovative community of service for the common good.

“We each have a solemn duty to make positive contributions to the world. Well, my reasons for becoming an engineer were initially frivolous, but they eventually moved into something more meaningful. I want to have a positive impact on the world.”

Dosunmu-Ogunbi is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. Prior to her PhD, she earned an MVP award from the University of Illinois’, Pi Tau Sigma chapter.

The academic has been an active community builder in robotics, earning an MLK Spirit Award from the College of Engineering for mentoring and inspiration as well as being named an outreach ambassador by Robotics for three years running, 2021-23.

She has also been inducted into the Bouchet Society, which recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes diversity in graduate education and the professoriate.

The House of Representatives Thursday asked the Central Bank of Nigeria to withdraw the circular directing all banks to commence charging a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions within the country, The Nation reports.

The motion on the urgent need to halt and modify the implementation of the cybersecurity levy was moved by the member representing the Obio/Akpor Constituency, Kingsley Chinda.

The circular, which was directed to all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, among others; noted that the implementation of the levy starts two weeks from Monday, May 6, 2024.

“The levy shall be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution. The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration, ‘Cybersecurity Levy,’” the circular partly read.

In the motion, Chinda said, “The House notes that businesses which the said Section 44(2)(a) refers to are listed in the Second Schedule to the Cybercrimes Act to be GSM Service Providers and all telecommunication companies; Internet Service Providers; Banks and Other Financial Institutions; Insurance Companies and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“The CBN circular mandates all banks, other financial institutions and payments service providers to implement the Cybercrimes Act by applying the levy at the point of electronic transfer origination as “Cybersecurity Levy,” and remitting same.

“The wordings of the CBN circular leaves the directive to multiple interpretations including that the levy be paid by bank customers, that is, Nigerians, against the letters and spirit of Section 44(2)(a) and the Second Schedule to the Cybercrimes Act, which specifies the businesses that should be levied accordingly,” the lawmaker noted.

The development according to the lawmaker “has led to apprehension as civil society organisations and citizens have taken to conventional and social media to call out the Federal Government to give ultimatums for a reversal of the ‘imposed levy on Nigerians’ among other things.”

He argued that unless immediate pragmatic steps are taken to stop the proposed action of the CBN, “The Cybercrime Act shall be implemented in error at a time when Nigerians are experiencing the aftermath of multiple removal of subsidies from petroleum, electricity and so on and the rising inflation.”