Richard Agulu, a former Zenith Bank worker, told the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, Abuja on Tuesday that bank management gave him verbal permission to move over N5 billion through channels that bypassed standard procedures. He made this claim while being questioned by Mathew Burkaa, SAN, the lawyer representing Godwin Emefiele, the ex-Central Bank of Nigeria governor whose trial is ongoing.
Agulu said Macauly Ihekoronye, then head of operations at Zenith Bank, authorised the unusual step because these transfers were "peculiar" in nature. "It is a peculiar transaction.
I have permission or waiver to operate and I was given an oral waiver," he told the court.
The witness, testifying as the third prosecution witness, admitted he transferred more than N5 billion into accounts belonging to Ifeadigo and Kelvito Investment without following normal banking rules. He explained that Eric Ocheme, identified by prosecutors as Emefiele's personal assistant and currently missing, ordered him to execute the transfers outside regular business hours.
Agulu further confessed to depositing cash into customer accounts while falsely recording the account holders themselves as the source of the money. Under questioning, he acknowledged breaking Zenith Bank's operational guidelines but claimed the oral waiver justified these departures given the circumstances.
Remarkably, the witness confirmed that despite circumventing banking procedures, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission never prosecuted him. He also stressed that he never dealt directly with Emefiele during any of the transactions and that his EFCC statement made no mention of passing payment receipts to the former central bank chief.
Emefiele and Ocheme face trial in case number FCT/HC/CR/358/2025 on allegations of illegally maintaining billions in proxy accounts at Zenith Bank. The EFCC has also charged Emefiele with forging a document titled Irrevocable Power of Attorney between MG Properties Limited and H and Y Business Global Limited in January 2021, claiming he created it to falsely appear as if H and Y Business Global Limited had authorised it.
The alleged breaches violate sections 319, 362 and 364 of the Penal Code. Emefiele has denied all charges.
After the cross-examination concluded, Burkaa asked the court to formally note what he claimed was the witness's reluctance to answer questions about his involvement in the disputed transfers. Prosecution counsel Abbas Mohammed rejected the request, saying only the court could decide if a witness was refusing to cooperate.
Justice Yusuf Halilu postponed the trial to November 3 for proceedings to resume.
